Does dental appearance affect employment prospects: a prospective cross-sectional study

Objective: The principal aim was to establish whether dental appearance affects employment prospects, and if so a secondary aim was to ascertain whether there is a difference between public-facing and non-public-facing jobs. Design: A prospective cross-sectional experimental analogue study. Participants: Ninety undergraduates studying at London Metropolitan University School of Business. Methods: Vignettes comprising curriculum vitae (CV) with a single photograph of the applicant attached formed the experimental manipulation. For each job application, the written information on the CV remained constant, but the attached photograph had one of three altered dental appearances: (1) aligned teeth, (2) maxillary stainless steel labial fixed appliance and (3) an absent maxillary left lateral incisor. To ascertain whether there are differences between public-and non-public-facing jobs, two different job descriptions with matching CVs were designed. Each participant was randomly assigned an envelope containing one CV with one photograph and asked if they would shortlist the candidate for an interview. Likert scales were used with higher scores indicating greater likelihood to shortlist. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance was conducted with Photo (three levels) and Job Type (two levels) as independent variables, and gender as a covariate. Results: A trend was found for the candidate with an absent maxillary lateral incisor to be less likely to be shortlisted for the public-facing job, compared to both candidates with aligned teeth and with fixed appliances. There were no significant main effects and the interaction was not significant. The effect of gender was not significant. Conclusions: In this study, dental appearance did not influence employment prospects. When a photograph is attached to a CV, the dental appearance of the photograph did not influence whether a candidate was shortlisted for a job interview or their anticipated job performance. There were no differences between public-facing and non-public-facing jobs.