Canting of the occlusal plane: perceptions of dental professionals and laypersons

Objectives: To determine if canting of the occlusal plane influences esthetic evaluation of the smile among orthodontists, dentists and laypersons. Study Design: A frontal photo of a smile with 0º occlusal plane canting in relation to the bipupillary plane was modified using Adobe Photoshop C3 (Adobe Systems Inc, San José, California) to generate two images with occlusal plane inclinations of 2º and 4º. The three images were evaluated esthetically by orthodontists (n=40) general dentists (n=40) and laypersons (n=40). Each image was awarded a score as follows: 1=esthetically acceptable; 2=moderately acceptable; 3=esthetically unacceptable. Evaluators also placed the three images in order in …