Perception of Dental Aesthetics among Dental Students; a Cross-sectional Study in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Background: Dental aesthectics is now a necessary area in the field of dentistry, and new graduates' perceptions should be investigated. Hence the present cross-sectional study aimed to assess the perception about dental aesthetics among clinical interns, dentistry interns, and pre-clinical interns in dental colleges on Saudi Arabia.

Materials and Methods: The study subjects comprises of all above three (clinical interns, dentistry interns, and pre-clinical interns) groups volunteered from different colleges. Perception about dental aesthetics was measured using a 14 item questionnaire. Chi-square test was performed on SPSS to determine the statistically significant differences (p<0.05) across gender and dentistry level.

Results: Findings revealed 61% of the participants were male while 39% were female. Among them, 26% were pre-clinical interns, 41% were dental interns and 33%were clinical students. All the particiants reported some kind of dissatisfaction with appearance of their teeth and males were more satisfied and confident about their teeth and smile than females.

Conclusion: To conclude, in the present study male participants and clinical students were confident about their smile as compared to female while dental interns thought others have good smile. The study reported the significant gender differences on looking at magazines, having whiter teeth, they way gums look and putting hand over mouth while non-significant differences across dentistry level.