Perceptions of dental esthetics among older African Americans.

Older adults have greater potential for issues with the appearance of their teeth than other age groups. Conditions including missing teeth, fractured or missing restorations, and excessive tooth wear are common and may potentially affect individuals’ perceptions of their dental esthetics. These perceptions about dental conditions may be significant because previous research suggests that they may impact elders’ quality of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the esthetic ranking of specific dental conditions by a population of African American elderly, utilizing methods similar to those of an earlier study of older Caucasians. These methods were designed to determine whether specific oral/facial and dental conditions were associated with similar perceptions of esthetics in a series of computer-adjusted images regardless of gender or any other facial characteristics. Our results suggest that, among the conditions studied, perceptions of dental esthetics of elderly African Americans were similar to those of Caucasians.