Two Effective Surveys Measuring QOL in Pediatric Dentofacial Patients

Objectives: Individuals with dental and facial relationships that deviate severely from norms have a dentofacial deformity. This condition can result in reduced quality of life (QOL). The Orthognathic Quality of Life Questionnaire (OQLQ) was designed for patients with dentofacial deformities and does not have a specific age demographic. The Child Oral Health Impact Profile (COHIP) was designed to detect QOL measures in pediatric patients but has not been used extensively for dentofacial deformity patients. The objectives of this study were to assess the effectiveness of each survey to detect QOL differences between dentofacial deformity patients and the general population and to assess the correlation between OQL outcomes for each instrument with the type and severity of the condition.
Methods: Patients under age 18 and offered orthognathic surgery completed both surveys prior to treatment. Control subjects matched for gender and age also completed both surveys. The COHIP contains 20 questions comprising 5 domains and the OQLQ has 22 questions and 4 domains. Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests were used to detect differences between subjects and controls for each of the domains and total scores for both surveys. Subjects were classified as Class I open bite, Class II skeletal, and Class III skeletal. Spearman’s test was used to detect correlation between severity of the condition (overjet) for Class II and Class III subjects.
Results: 21 subjects and 22 controls were enrolled. There were statistically significant differences between subjects and controls for total score and self-image domain for COHIP and for dentofacial aesthetics and oral function domains for OQLQ. There was no significant correlation between overjet with any of the domains or total scores.
Conclusions: There is evidence to support using both OQLQ and COHIP though QOL of outcomes do not appear to correlate with the severity of the condition.