Facial attractiveness is an important physical attrib- ute on which perceived personality traits and social ability are formulated by society (1–6). Cognitive science has shown that perception of facial attract- iveness displayed sexual dimorphism and cross- cultural similarity in the selection of facial features that constitute an attractive face (7–9). The rele- vance of facial esthetics in dentistry has gained greater attention in modern times. Prosthodontic oral rehabilitation (10, 11) and orthodontic-surgical correction of dentofacial deformities (12, 13) are treatment approaches that recognize the import- ance of soft tissue inﬂuence on facial attractiveness. Self-perceived dentofacial attractiveness was found to have an impact on orthodontic treatment uptake (14, 15). Improvement of facial esthetics was the primary motivation in adults who had orthognathic surgery carried out (16–21). Meas- urements made on cephalometric radiographs that deﬁne facial morphology were poorly correlated with self-perception of facial esthetics (22–25). The rating of facial attractiveness was found to be inﬂuenced by the direction from which the face was assessed. The level of dental training also had an inﬂuence on the rating of facial attractiveness (26). Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2007; 35: 18–24 All rights reserved Copyright Ó Blackwell Munksgaard 2007 An Asian community’s perspective on facial proﬁle attractiveness Soh J, Chew MT, Wong HB. An Asian community’s perspective on facial proﬁle attractiveness. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2007; 35: 18–24. Ó Blackwell Munksgaard, 2007 Abstract – Objectives: To assess the facial proﬁle preferences of laypersons in an Asian community and the inﬂuence of age, ethnic and gender on proﬁle selection. Methods: A sample of 149 laypersons (65.1% Chinese, 21.5% Malays and 13.4% Indians), comprising of 112 females (75.2%) participated in the study. The mean age was 24.6 years (SD 4.4). A facial proﬁle photograph and a lateral cephalometric radiograph of a Chinese male and female adult with a normal proﬁle and a class I incisor and skeletal relationship were digitized to create a baseline template. Computerized digital photographic image modiﬁcation was carried out on the template to obtain seven facial proﬁles [bimaxillary protrusion, protrusive mandible, retrusive mandible, normal proﬁle (incisor and skeletal class I pattern), retrusive maxilla, protrusive maxilla and bimaxillary retrusion] for each gender. The laypersons were asked to rank the proﬁles of each gender on a scale of 1 (very attractive) to 7 (least attractive). Results: Orthognathic Chinese male and female proﬁles were perceived to be the most attractive. A male orthognathic proﬁle with normative Chinese cephalometric values was perceived to be more attractive than a ‘ﬂatter’ bimaxillary retrusive proﬁle. Bimaxillary retrusion and normal Chinese female proﬁles were perceived to be the most attractive. A male or female proﬁle with a protrusive mandible was judged to be the least attractive. Age, gender and ethnicity were nonsigniﬁcant predictors for the most attractive female proﬁle. Conclusions: Orthognathic Chinese male and female proﬁles were judged to be the most attractive by Asian adult laypersons. Male and female proﬁles with mandibular protrusion were judged to be the least attractive. Jen Soh 1 , Ming Tak Chew 2 and Hwee Bee Wong 3 1 Department of Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 2 Department of Orthodontics, National Dental Centre, Singapore, 3 Department of Biostatistics, Clinical Trials and Epidemiology Research Unit, Singapore Key words: age; ethnicity; facial proﬁle preferences; gender; laypersons Dr Jen Soh, Faculty of Dentistry, National University Hospital, 5 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Main Building, Singapore 119 074 Tel: 65 6779 5555 Ext. 1657 Fax: 65 6773 2602 e-mail: pndsj@nus.edu.sg Submitted 17 May 2005; accepted 17 January 2006 18