Oral Health-related Quality of Life before and after prosthetic treatment

Objectives: to evaluate change in Oral Health-related Quality of Life (OHQoL) of patients treated with conventional prosthesis by students of the University Clinic of Salamanca (Spain). Methods: On a consecutive sample of patients seeking prosthodontic treatment data were collected on OHQoL at baseline and one month after prosthetic treatment was completed, using a previously validated instrument (OHIP-14). At follow up OHQoL was reassessed using an evaluative instrument (OHIP-post) in which patients answered whether the prosthesis received had generated a poorer, equal, or better effect on the 14 items. A Poisson regression was made using the number of positive items in the OHIP-post as dependent variable. Results: 153 patients aged 18 to 87 years (mean age: 64.9 ± 10.7; women: 47.1%) were treated with tooth-supported fixed prosthodontics (n=46; 30.1%), skeletals (n=59; 38.6%), acrylic partial denture (n=24; 15.7%) or complete dentures (n=24; 15.7%). At baseline those patients needing acrylic dentures (partial or complete) were significantly more impaired, but at follow-up, subjects treated with either complete or skeletals dentures tended to perceive a greater improvement in OHQoL, although it was not significant. Prosthetic treatment mainly improves the oral satisfaction (70% patients), the aesthetic on smiling (66.7%) and chewing ability (54.9%).  However pain and chewing function worse in 25% and 20% of treated patients respectively (mainly in denture wearers). Poisson regression coefficients demonstrated that on average 3 items changed positively after prosthetic treatment, but this improvement is significantly increased if patient was treated with an skeletal  denture (OR: 1.1-1.9  items) or if the patient was a male (OR= 1.1-1.7 items). Conclusion: All patients perceived on average a global benefit after prosthetic treatment, this benefit being greater among patients treated with skeletals or complete dentures; and lower among those treated with acrylic partial dentures.