engleski

Psychosocial issues related to the deviation from norms of well-balanced facial profile

Aims: To explore how adults perceive the deviations from the norm of well-balanced facial profile with normal occlusion and to which extent they result in reduced satisfaction with facial appearance and psychosocial impacts. Subjects and methods: The sample included 225 subjects (64% females) aged 18-42 years (median 21), employees and students of the University of Rijeka, Croatia. Their facial profiles were analyzed by photogrammetric method and they were classified by each cephalometric variable in three categories: within the standard values for Croatian population with normal occlusion, below and above standard ranges. Psychosocial issues were assessed by self-reported satisfaction with facial appearance on scale ranging from 0=not at all to 4=very much, and domains of Orthognathic Quality of Life Questionnaire: Social Aspect of Dentofacial Aesthetics (SA), Facial Aesthetics Concern (FA) and Awareness of Dentofacial Aesthetics (AW). Results: Males with concave profile are less satisfied with their facial appearance than those with straight and convex profile (p<0.05). Similar is seen in females as well. Deviations from balanced morphology of nose and lip prominence do not raise major psychosocial concerns. Decreased height of upper lip in males induces lower satisfaction and higher FA than normal and increased height of upper lip (p<0.05). In females increased middle third of face increases AW (p=0.038) and similar tendency is seen in SA. Conclusions: Deviations from a well-balanced facial profile, morphology of nose and lip do not raise psychosocial issues to a big extent. The range of acceptable facial characteristics is obviously much broader than the norms.

facial esthetics; psychosocial context

Potpora istraživanju sredstvima Sveučilišta u Rijeci (13.06.2.1.53)