Undergraduate Students' Perception of Dental Appearance and Tooth Colour

OBJECTIVES:

To determine the prevalence of dissatisfaction with dental appearance and the factors influencing undergraduate students' perception of their dental appearance.

METHODS:

A stratified random sample of 250 undergraduate medical students of college of medicine Idi-araba, Lagos completed a self administered questionnaire regarding satisfaction with dental appearance and tooth colour. Data was analysed with Epi info 2005 statistical software.

RESULTS:

Overall only 10.2% of the students expressed dissatisfaction with their dental appearance. Tooth colour was the primary reason for dissatisfaction (25.4%) followed by alignment of teeth (9.4%). While socio- demographic variables such as gender, age, and educational level were not significantly related to perception of the students' dental appearance, colour, size and alignment of the teeth were. However 69.3% of the students would like to improve the colour of their teeth by whitening them.

CONCLUSION:

Dissatisfaction with dental appearance was not common among Nigerian medical students. Like youths anywhere in the world they have shown greater preference for aesthetically pleasing colour of teeth over other considerations.