Evaluation of the relationship between dentolabial variables and aesthetic perception with eye tracking device

An attractive smile contributes to an individual's appearance and increases the favourable impression on people. As beauty is a subjective interpretation, aesthetic guidelines reduce misunderstandings and unnecessary treatments, leading to improved outcomes. Education plays a major role in aesthetic perception and treatment requirements and differs between faculties. Eye tracking technology can be used to objectively assess the level of focus on aesthetic variables. The aim of the study was to examine the level of focus on aesthetic variables and the relationship between the level of education and the degree of evaluation of smile parameters in dental students. In this study, 189 students (71 males, 118 females) were included. Modified photographs were created by digitally changing the midline, smile line, buccal corridor and occlusal cant parameters on a frontal photograph taken from a volunteer with an ideal smile. These photographs were divided into two groups, one group with the face image cropped and the other group with only the smile image cropped, uploaded to the eye tracker programme (Tobii X2-60, Stockholm, Sweden) and randomly shown to the observers, and the initial and total focusing time and the number of visits to the relevant areas were recorded by the eye tracker (Tobii Spark). Participants recorded Likert-scale liking scores for each photograph. According to the results of the study, there was a significant difference in the buccal corridor variable according to the term status of the students. As the level of education increased, a partial increase in the level of aesthetic perception was found. For all variables, as the amount of deviation from the control groups increased, the liking levels decreased according to the Likert scale.