Influence of anterior buccolingual crown inclination on the esthetic perception of the frontal smile by dentists, orthodontists, and laypersons: the importance of connector parallelism.

Objectives: To assess the perception of smile esthetics, variations in buccolingual crown inclination of the upper anterior teeth were introduced, disrupting the parallelism of these connectors from a frontal view.

Materials and methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, a close-up smile image was modified using Adobe Photoshop to adjust the angulation of connectors, affecting either the six upper anterior teeth (C/C group) or the four upper anterior teeth (LI/LI group). Orthodontists (ORs), general dentists (GDs), and laypersons (LPs) then evaluated the attractiveness of the modified smiles.

Results: A total of 79 LPs, 65 ORs, and 89 GDs participated in the evaluation. LPs gave the highest scores, followed by GDs and ORs, in both the C/C and LI/LI groups. The -6° deviated image was the least favored in the C/C group, while the -9° image received the lowest scores in the LI/LI group.

Conclusions: In this study, we highlight the importance of proper buccolingual crown inclination and parallelism of connectors during treatment. The OR group showed the most critical assessment of smile esthetics related to buccolingual crown inclination variations. Lower scores were noted for greater deformations and negative inclinations in both the LI/LI and C/C groups.