Perception of orbital epitheses evaluated with eye tracker

Purpose: Orbital epitheses replace a missing eyeball and surrounding soft tissue. Perception of epithesis in public gaze and the attention areas on the face are of interest. This study aimed to examine the differences in perception of orbital epitheses by prosthodontists, dentistry students, and laypeople with an objective evaluation tool that utilized eye-tracking technology.

Materials and methods: Twenty-four frontal facial images of 12 patients who had orbital epitheses were viewed by 81 observers (prosthodontists, dentistry students, laypeople) in random order for 5 seconds each. Gaze data were analyzed. Kruskal-Wallis H test with Bonferroni correction was used to compare parameters in groups and areas of interest.

Results: First fixation duration at the mouth for symmetrical images were 0.30, 0.28, and 0.25 seconds for prosthodontists, students, and laypeople, respectively. Fixation duration at the mouth for the laypeople (0.27 second) was shorter than students (0.29 second) and prosthodontists (0.31 second) at symmetrical images. Time to the first fixation to epithesis, nose, and eye was significantly lower than the forehead and mouth for all groups. Fixation count at epithesis was 6.36 for prosthodontists, 5.64 for students, and 5.34 for laypeople.

Conclusion: Eyes were of most significant interest for all observer groups in symmetrical images. Individuals dealing with dentistry, especially prosthodontists, paid more attention to the mouth region along with the eyes in symmetrical images, considering fixation duration and fixation count. Attention directed to epithesis by all groups was verified with objective and measurable criteria. Prosthodontists' attention to epithesis and mouth was evident considering the four parameters measured.