Association of Perceived Dental Aesthetics with Psychosocial well-being among young adults of Rawalpindi

Abstract

Background: Oral health is equally important as that of the physical and physiological health of an individual. The maintenance of psychosocial well-being is important for the preservation of physical psychological health and quality of life Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the association of self-perceived dental aesthetics with psychosocial well-being or interactions and to analyze the impacts of dental aesthetics on the self-esteem, confidence, social interactions and behavioral associations of the young adults of Rawalpindi along with finding its association with socio-demographic factors like age, gender. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried at public and private universities of Rawalpindi city. A total of 268 respondents were selected through multistage random sampling. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 26.0. Independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA were applied to examine the association of dependent variable with socio-demographic factors. Results: Among the 268 respondents, majority of the respondents were females (n= 159, 52%). Nearly half of the respondents studied at private universities (n= 135, 50%). Overall, the results showed that majority of the respondents reported no need for treatment (n= 196, 69%) Significant association were reported with marital status, want to improve dental appearance and comfortable with dental appearance (P value<0.05). . Conclusion: Dental aesthetics was found to affect the psychological well-being of the subjects. Age, marital status, level of education, and level of income were all factors that significantly affected self-perceived aesthetics and psychosocial well-being. Keywords: Perceived dental aesthetics, PIDAQ, Psychological wellbeing, Private, Public, Rawalpindi, Young adults.