An Assessment of the Accuracy of Recurring Esthetic Dental Proportion: An In Vivo Comparative Analysis of Maxillary Anterior Teeth Proportion With Chu's Gauge and Custom-Made Calipers

• Published in: Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 15; no. 11; p. e49713
• Main Authors: Malli, Prakyath, Kateel, Shrimaa B, K, Amal, Shetty, Sanath Kumar, Shetty, Tripthi P, Prabhu, Uma Mayur
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Cureus Inc 30.11.2023
• Subjects: Asian people; Body measurements; Cosmetic dentistry; Dental equipment; Teeth; India; teeth proportion; smile engineering; golden proportion; chu's esthetic gauge; smile esthetics
• ISSN: 2168-8184; 2168-8184
• DOI: 10.7759/cureus.49713

Smile designing, in harmony with nature, has always been a challenge in dentistry. Several theories have been proposed in the past with a view to replicate an esthetic smile. One such method proposed by Dr. Chu involves using the recurring esthetic dental (RED) proportion. He designed a scale for calculating the average values for the height and width of upper anterior teeth for a specified population. However, whether this average is valid for other populations has not been verified. Hence, this study was conducted to evaluate if Chu's gauge value agrees with the dimension of anterior teeth in the South Indian population. The study involved 362 subjects whose anterior teeth dimension was assessed using Chu's gauge and a custom-made caliper. The proportion of the population whose dimension aligns with the average values on Chu's gauge was evaluated. The results showed that in the cohort, 39% had their central incisor dimension coinciding with the red band of Chu's esthetic scale, 10% had their lateral incisor coinciding with the blue band of Chu's esthetic scale, and 6.4% of the subjects had their canine dimension coinciding with the yellow band of Chu's esthetic scale.