Abstract
Purpose: To assess the self-perceived psychological impact of dental aesthetics among female university students and its relationship to various sociodemographic factors.
Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 2400 female students from various departments of selected private and public universities in Riyadh City. Participants completed an Arabic translated version of the Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetic Questionnaire (PIDAQ) and a short demographic sheet. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the sample's sociodemographic characteristics as well as the mean PIDAQ scores. Bivariate analysis (ANOVA) and linear regression were used to investigate the impact of the sociodemographic factors on the mean PIDAQ scores.
Results: The pilot test revealed the instruments' conceptual equivalence, semantic equivalence and ease of comprehension. Cronbach's alpha was 0.81, indicating good internal consistency. The total sample was 1845 with a mean age of 20.74 years. The total mean score for the (PIDAQ) was 58.10 ( SD=11.41). Significant differences were detected between different university affiliation in the dental self-consciousness (<0.0001), social (<0.0001) and psychological impacts (0.0256) and the total PIDAQ scores (0.0024). Significant differences were also detected between different disciplines in the dental aesthetics (0.0110) and social (0.0195) domains as well as the total PIDAQ scores (0.0144). College level was also a significant factor where middle students were significantly impacted socially (0.0026) compared to junior level students. As for the impact of income, those with the highest income displayed greater social impact (0.0039), psychological impact (0.0046) and impact on aesthetic attitude (0.0037) when compared to students with lower income levels.
Conclusion: Dental aesthetics was found to affect the psychological well-being of the subjects. University affiliation, faculty affiliation, college level, and level of income were all factors that significantly affected self-perceived aesthetics and psychosocial well-being.