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Esthetics and Dental Restorations

Sorin Uram-Tuculescu*

Dental esthetics as part of facial and body appearance can be probably regarded as common sense today, but this domain supports further characterization, considering at least a historical and social perspective. In order to do so, an examination of the evolution and levels of esthetic perception would be helpful. Esthetics refers to the branch of philosophy dealing with beauty and taste. It can be regarded also as an artistic, anthropological, social and cultural dimension. The roots of esthetics can be traced in ancient times, along with the earliest beginnings of art, but to describe it as a movement, we need to go back only in the 19th century, when estheticism was documented in Europe. Also known as symbolism or decadence in France, it was an anti-Victorian reaction, emphasizing esthetic values over moral or social themes. Why is it so important? Probably because more than 90% of our afferent stimuli are visual, and the not so old saying "what is beautiful is good" [1] was recently confirmed again: people with more attractive faces are assessed to be more successful, contended, pleasant, intelligent, sociable, exciting, creative and diligent [2]. Gruendel [2] also found that the most attractive faces (as rated by lay persons) do not exist in reality; but can be obtained by "morphing" (averaging) images, using graphic software.