Effect of lower facial height and anteroposterior lip position on esthetic preference for Korean silhouette profiles

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the esthetic preference for various Korean silhouette profiles. Methods: The Korean average male and female profiles were modified by changing the lower facial height and anteroposterior lip position to produce nine types of profiles. In order to test intrarater reliability, the average profile was copied once more to be included for evaluation. A questionnaire containing 10 profiles for each sex, each of which had to be rated for preference on a numerical rating scale from 0 to 10, was administered to 30 adult orthodontic patients, 30 dental students, 30 orthodontists, and 30 dentists excluding orthodontists. The data were statistically analyzed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), independent t-test, and one-way ANOVA. Results: The ICC of overall intrarater reliability was 0.629. For several profiles, significantly higher scores were given to male profiles than to female profiles (p < 0.05). However, no significant differences were found in the scores for all profiles among the four rater groups. Among the short profiles, a significantly higher score was given to the retruded profile, and among the vertically average and long profiles, a significantly higher score was given to the horizontally average profile (p < 0.001). Among all the profiles, significantly lower scores were given to the protruded profile (p < 0.001). Conclusions: This study revealed good overall intrarater reliability, with several types of male profiles being esthetically preferred over female profiles. Moreover, while retruded and horizontally average profiles were generally preferred, protruded profiles were not.