Investigation of the Aesthetic Impact of Fluorosis among Irish 15-Year-Olds

TITLE:

Investigation of the Aesthetic Impact of Fluorosis among Irish 15-Year-Olds

OBJECTIVES:

To investigate the level at which enamel fluorosis is aesthetically objectionable to Irish 15-year-olds.

METHODS:

A convenience sample of Irish 15-year-olds (n=150) (53% female, 47% male) rated the appearance of seven template dental photographs. The photographs featured an identical aesthetic smile showing upper permanent incisors and canines. Various degrees of enamel fluorosis (‘TF1', ‘TF2' and ‘TF3' according to the Thylstrup Fejerskov (TF) Index), normal enamel (‘TF0'), dental caries, demarcated opacities as well as bleached teeth were shown on the same permanent upper incisors in each of the photographs. The adolescents were asked to rate the aesthetics of each photograph, including whether or not they felt the appearance of the teeth was pleasing and whether or not “someone with teeth like these would be embarrassed by their appearance”. The responses of the total sample to the seven photographs are presented.

RESULTS:

The percentage of adolescents agreeing with the statement “The appearance of these teeth is pleasing and they look nice” decreased with increasing levels of fluorosis; 36.2%, 29.3% and 9.4% agreed with the statement for the photograph depicting ‘TF1', ‘TF2' and ‘TF3' levels of fluorosis respectively. 16.7% and 14.0% of participants agreed with the statement “Someone with teeth like those would be embarrassed by their appearance” for the photographs depicting ‘TF1' and ‘TF2' levels of fluorosis respectively as compared with 36.2% of participants for the photograph depicting ‘TF3'. Similar percentages of participants agreed with the statement “Teeth like this would be an advantage in life” for the photograph depicting ‘TF1' (24.0%) and ‘TF2' (19.3%). In contrast, 6.8% of participants agreed with the statement for the photograph depicting ‘TF3'.

CONCLUSIONS:

A trend was identified for ‘TF3' to be rated as the most aesthetically displeasing level of fluorosis by respondents in this study.

Sponsored by HRB HSR Fellowship HRS/2004/3 505 727 4065