Two hundred seven parents of patients at the St. Louis University Orthodontic Clinic chose ideal male and female profiles from groups of five profile drawings ranging from severely retregnathic to severely prognathic. In addition, they completed a self concept questionnaire (Bills Index of Adjustment) and picked from the profile drawings of the profile they felt most closely resembled their own. A silhouette photograph of each subject provided an objective profile. Fifty-six percent of the subjects were able to correctly classify their own profile and 93% of the subjects agreed with the orthodontic conception of the ideal profile. Of the subjects who misperceived their profiles those in the high self esteem group judged their profiles to be less ideal than they actually were. Since there were equal percentages of subjects with ideal profiles in each self esteem group, self concept does not appear to be appreciably influenced by objective appearance. Rather, in most cases it seems that a person's perception of his facial profile is determined by his psychological self satisfaction rather than by his objective appearance. (Author)