Patient satisfaction and aesthetic concern are important factors that must be considered for a successful dental treatment [12]. The present study determined factors affecting adolescent dental self-confidence and satisfaction with dental appearance in Saudi Arabia. The results showed that tooth color and alignment, gender and parents’ educational level affected their dental self-confidence and smile satisfaction. Thus, the null hypothesis was rejected.
The results of the current study showed that most students (80%) were satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their smiles. However, the main reasons for smile dissatisfaction were related to teeth alignment, color and shape respectively. Similarly, previous studies showed that patients feel better and safer when they are pleased with the alignment and shape of their teeth, and that teeth crowding results in negative psychosocial effects [12–15]. Malocclusion affects facial appeal, thus influencing self and social perception of adolescents [15], due to the association between appearance and social status and acceptability [16]. In line with our results, several studies found that patients’ satisfaction with their dental appearance was affected by tooth color [8,12–14,17,18]., Tooth discoloration could decrease a patient’s personal satisfaction and adversely affects his emotional state, Therefore, some patients seek cosmetic treatments including tooth whitening [17]. Contrary to our findings, Höfel et al. [19] reported that neither tooth color, nor dental appearance were correlated to perceptions of facial attractiveness. This variation in the results might be due to differences between the study design regarding age and educational level of the participants. [19].
Our results revealed that females felt a higher psychosocial impact of dental aesthetics and aesthetic concern (AC) compared to males, and lower dental self-confidence (DSC). These results are in agreement with previous reports that observed less self-confidence in girls compared to boys [20,21]. Also in agreement, previous studies found higher dental concern and oral demands with females than males, who are more comfortable with their dental appearance[22,23]. This might be related to their social life style that makes them less concerned with their appearance than females[22,23]. In addition, psychosocial factors are the main motivation that make females require esthetic treatment, therefore these factors had significantly higher psychological and social impact than males [23,24]. Other studies didn’t find significant differences in the psychosocial impact of dental aesthetics between males and females [25,26]. In contrast, Chen et al. [27] found that males, compared to females, showed more adverse aesthetic attitude and dental self-confidence when anterior teeth were missing, and higher improvement of the social impact, aesthetic attitude and dental self-confidence after implantation [27]. This can be explained by the opinion that males are generally less stable psychologically and live a more stressful social life than females [27]. Afroz et al. [5] found that Indian men more concerned about their smile than women were, and women were more satisfied with their dental aesthetics. The authors suggested that changes in society and the impact of marketing made men as concerned as women with their beauty and their physical appearance [5,25]. The diversity between these findings and the present study could have resulted from differences in age of the participants and in the study methods [22] or due to the ethnic and cultural differences between the studied populations [28].
Obvious malocclusion, tooth color, and being a female are among the factors that increase aesthetic concern (AC) [13]. These findings are in line with the present study which reported a higher AC among females in comparison to males, as well as showing the effect of tooth alignment and color on patients’ dissatisfaction with their smile.
University education of participants fathers was significantly associated with higher psychosocial impact of dental aesthetics, high psychological impact (PI) and aesthetic concern (AC). Participants with whose mothers had a university education expressed less positive dental self-confidence (DSC) and high social impact (SI). In line with the present results, a previous study suggested that individuals with higher education are aware of the effect of dental esthetics on social acceptance [27,29]. However, Akarslan et al. [18] correlated decreased dissatisfaction with dental aesthetics and an increase in educational level.
Romero et al. [30] found that participants with university degrees presented higher scores in self-confidence than participants with just school education. This might be attributed to the increase in maturity with age and knowledge, which is in agreement with our results as the participants were from intermediate and high schools. But their parents’ education might have raised the participants’ needs and aesthetic expectations and decreased their smile satisfaction because participants are looking to reach the best esthetic outcome like their parental role models [31].
There is a strong correlation between dental treatment needs, especially esthetic treatments, and psychological satisfaction with dental appearance, that is affected by poor tooth color and alignment [13,14]. This agrees with our results which showed that causes of smile dissatisfaction were related mainly to improper tooth alignment, color and shape. Understanding the treatment needs of adolescents would have an important clinical significance particularly when planning cosmetic dental treatment satisfying the patient’s needs and expectations [13].
The strengths of this study include the high response rate of participants from different areas of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Hence, the results are representative of the adolescent population in the area of study. However, this study was limited to testing satisfaction with dental appearance among adolescents. Therefore, the results of this study do not represent older age groups and cannot be generalized to the whole population.
Further long-term longitudinal studies are required to evaluate the effect of age, level of education, income, social status, and different conditions (physical and psychological) on satisfaction with dental appearance and the psychosocial impact of dental aesthetics.