Satisfaction with dental appearance and personality traitsamong a population of Nigerian dental patients.

OBJECTIVE: Facial appearance has been found to have an important social and psychological effect on the human personality. Hence, this cross-sectional analytic questionnaire-based study of dental patients assessed the satisfaction with dental appearance and personality traits among a group of dental patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The questionnaire sought information on the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants; satisfaction with teeth in general and with tooth color in particular; the presence of caries, tooth-colored fillings, and tooth fractures; and desired treatment to improve appearance. A visual analog scale (VAS) was used to determine satisfaction with appearance, and the 10-item version of the Big Five personality inventory data was subjected to analysis in the form of frequency distribution, descriptive statistics, cross tabulations, chi-square, and logistic regression, with P set at 0.05.

RESULTS: Those participants not satisfied with their tooth color were less likely to be satisfied with the general appearance of their teeth. A greater proportion of participants who were satisfied with the general appearance of their teeth had low scores on conscientiousness traits and neuroticism traits. Those who had high scores on conscientiousness traits tended to be dissatisfied with their tooth color.

CONCLUSIONS: Personality traits affect the perception of satisfaction with tooth appearance, with patients with conscientiousness personality traits who tend toward perfectionism not readily satisfied, while those with neuroticism personality traits who are emotionally stable more readily satisfied with the appearance of their teeth. This information is important when providing esthetic dental treatment to patients, as expectations differ depending on individual personality traits.