Sulalman E. S. AlEmran, BDS, MS, PhD
College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this study was to characterize the self-perception of facial profile among Saudi patients with dentofaclal deformity and 1a correlate the findings with their educational level, social status, gender, chief complaint, typeof dentofaclal deformity and with the degree of patients' agreement to undergo orthognathic surgery. One hundred and fifteen Saudi patients with dentofacial deformity participated in the study. Clinical examination, soft tissue cephalometric analysis and patient perception assessment were done on all patients. Findings revealed that most of the patients had unlverslty-level education (56.5%) and were unmarried (92.2%jand that more males (58.3%) sought clinic consultation than female patients (41,71%). Majority of the patients were mainly concerned about their facial appearance, which was reflected in the high demand for orthognathic surgery (63.5%). About one third of the study patlents(28.7%) were exact in their facial profile self-perception and only 20% of thetotal samples were far from the right perception. There was positive correlation between high educational level and self-perception of facial profile leading to a higher demand for orthognathic surgery when compared to low education level group. Furthermore, among the different classification of dentofacial deformity, patients with skeletal class III expressed higher demand forsurglcal correction.

Saudi Dental Journal 2001;13(1):3-9.