Percepção estética do perfil facial de indivíduos afro-brasileiros

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the esthetic preferences regarding to African Brazilian facial profiles between orthodontists, patients’ parents and patients. The raters sample was composed of 22 Caucasian orthodontists, 40 African Brazilians patients’ parents and 40 African Brazilians patients from a multiethnic and multicultural metropolitan society. The profile photos of two individuals (1 man and 1 woman) were selected from a group of 43 black subjects with normal occlusion, untreated. The photographs were modified relative to Rickett’s E-line standard with Dolphin Imaging ® software in increments of 2 mm, producing a series of 7 male profiles and 7 female profiles with different degrees of bilabial protrusion and retrusion. The images were classified according to raters’ preferences, from de most attractive profile to the least attractive one. The mean and standard deviation for the ranking of scores were calculated. Kruskal-Wallis test was carried out to compare the three groups and Mann-Whitney test was used for paired comparisons between groups and to compare male and female evaluators’ preferences. For the male profile, orthodontists rated the -2 mm profile as the most pleasant and the +6 mm profile as the most unpleasant one, while parents and patients judged the +2 mm profile as the most harmonious and the -6 mm as the most disharmonious. For the female profiles, orthodontists, parents and patients considered, similarly, that the -2 mm profile was the most pleasant and +6 mm profile was the most unpleasant. There were statistically significant differences on the profile preferences between orthodontists and parents, and between orthodontists and patients, but there was no difference between parents and patients. Gender had significant influence on the profile´s perception. Male raters preferred a slight retrusion for both, male and female profiles, and rejected the more protruded ones. On the contrary, female raters prefered a more protruded profiles for men and more retruded for women. The results demonstrated that there were differences regarding to esthetics’ preferences between the groups of evaluators and the importance of taking into consideration the esthetic preferences of afrodescendants patients during the orthodontic planning and therapy.