A study to evaluate the influence of buccal corridor in an attractive smile

Abstract

Aesthetics is primary consideration for patients seeking prosthodontic treatment. An attractive, well balanced smile is a paramount treatment objective of modern therapy. Another potential important smile feature is presence or absence of buccal corridors. Buccal corridor is distance between the lateral junction of the upper and lower lips and distal points of the canines during smiling. It is important to reach proper buccal corridor dimension to increase the smile aesthetics. The broad smile showing more posterior teeth are considered more pleasing than the smile that shows fewer posterior teeth. The aim of this study is to measure and verify the influence of buccal corridor in an attractive smile. The sample is comprised of 179 smile standardized frontal photographs obtained from students of SDM Dental College aged 18 – 25 years with natural dentition will be analysed for their attractiveness. Further, smile was digitally analysed for negative space based on Johnson and Smith method to measure the negative space proportion. In this method, the width of maxillary arch in a smile photograph is measured, and the proportion of this value in relation to distance of lip commissure is found. This can be used to verify the proportion occupied by dental arch relative to intercommissure distance. Data obtained was statistically analysed.