Esthetic assessments in implant dentistry: objective and subjective criteria for clinicians and patients

Abstract

In recent years the scientific community has shown a clear interest in the esthetic outcome of implant treatment. The present paper provides an overview of the esthetic ratings that have been used in implant dentistry. A distinction can be made between objective evaluations by clinicians and subjective evaluations by patients. The former mainly include: midfacial and interproximal soft-tissue levels; two-dimensional/three-dimensional soft-tissue alterations; assessment of the color match between the natural dentition, on the one hand, and the peri-implant tissues and the reconstruction, on the other hand; and ordinal indices, such as the pink and white esthetic score. Patient's needs and judgment may differ from objective indicators of implant success and esthetics. As a result, assessing treatment on the basis of patient-reported outcomes measures should be considered important. Validated questionnaires have been used that mainly assess the impact of oral health on the overall well-being of individuals. The esthetic judgment of patients is usually based on nonstandardized questions with varying scoring methods, including visual analog scales, Likert and other category scales and open questions. The heterogeneity in scoring systems between studies may compromise proper comparison of objective and subjective esthetic outcomes between studies and therapeutic concepts.