Psychosocial Effect of Dental Esthetics among Young Adults in the Gujarati Population

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the psychosocial effect of dental esthetics and determine its correlation with the severity of malocclusion among young adults. Materials and Methods: A sample of 297 Gujarati young adults aged from 18 to 24 years were selected randomly, and intraoral examination was done by calibrated examiners at their colleges. The Psychosocial effect of Dental Aesthetics was measured by using the Psychosocial Impact of Dental Esthetic Questionnaire (PIDAQ). The severity of malocclusion was measured through the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN). The data were analyzed using student’s t tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Chi-square tests. Results: The results revealed that the total PIDAQ score and its four subscales, social impact, psychosocial impact, esthetic concern, and dental confidence, presented significant differences ( P ≤ 0.05 by ANOVA) and linear relationship with the IOTN grades ( P ≤ 0.05) and the psychosocial Impact subscale showed significant differences by gender. Conclusions: This study concludes that dental esthetics harm the psychosocial well-being of adults and when correlated with malocclusion it increases with the severity. The psychological impact is greater in females than in males.