Aesthetic evaluation of lip position with respect to profile divergence: A silhouette based study.

Objective: To determine the mean attractiveness and score of lip position that is rated by orthodontists and lay persons in different levels of profile divergence as seen in silhouette images. Study Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: Punjab Dental Hospital/de’Montmorency College of Dentistry, Lahore. Period: January 2020 to July 2020. Material & Methods: Lay people were selected from the hospital and orthodontic postgraduate trainees were selected from the college. An ideal profile image was constructed and converted to silhouette. By changing position of subnasale and soft tissue pogonion horizontally in relation to true vertical line, divergence of profile was changed and 3 forms of straight/normal profile were created. Three sets of profiles were created (1 anterior divergent, 2 straight divergent, 3 posterior divergent) and each set consisted of 5 images with different degrees of lip protrusion. Results: There were 50% of both genders in orthodontists and 48% males and 52% females in lay person with mean ages 28.74±2.55 and 34.66±7.30 years respectively were part of the study. There was significant difference found between orthodontists and lay person for anterior divergent profile with normal position (4.54±0.61 and 4.68±0.47 with P<0.05). Conclusion:  The normal lip position is viewed as the most ideal position; however the same does not have any significant bearing to the straight divergent profile, in which the assessments of various groups were uncertain.