Oral health related life quality in patients seeking dental care

Objectives: To assess the impact of oral health on quality of life (OHQoL) on patients presenting at the Department of Periodontology and Fixed Prosthodontics using a German version of the OHQoL-UK questionnaire, the OHQoL-GE questionnaire. Methods: 200 patients were invited to fill out the OHQoL-GE. In addition, patients were given a checklist of dental status related items over the past year: “tooth ache”, “need of dental treatment”, “bleeding gums”, “swollen gums”, “problems with dental prosthesis”. The questionnaires were completed by the patients in the waiting area prior to being seen by a dental professional. During the outpatient visit, medical and dental history, age, gender, number of present teeth and presence or absence and type of dental prosthesis were recorded. In addition, a basic periodontal examination (BPE) was carried out. Results: 174 OHQoL-GE questionnaires were completed. OHQoL-GE scores were significantly associated with patients' self-reported symptoms and problems in the past year: experiences of ‘‘tooth ache'' (P<0.01), ‘‘bleeding gums'' (P<0.05), ‘‘swollen gums'' (P<0.001) and “problems with dental prosthesis” (P<0.01) with the exception of ‘‘need of dental treatment'' (P=0.86). In addition, OHQoL-GE scores were correlated with the mean BPE score (rs -0.35, P<0.01), number of teeth present (rs 0.20, P<0.01) and age (rs 0.20, P<0.01). Patients without dental prostheses scored a median 46.0 (IQR 17) on a scale from 16 to 80. Scores below 48 indicate a negative impact on quality of life and scores above a positive impact respectively. Patients with fixed partial dentures (FPD) scored significantly higher (53.0 (IQR 25)) than patients with removable partial dentures (RPD) (41.0 (IQR 15)) (P=0.01). Conclusion: The OHQoL-GE demonstrates discriminative validity in a population seeking dental care. Periodontal and prosthetic status, number of teeth present and age impact on quality of life. Patients presenting with FPDs appeared to have higher OHQoL than patients with RPDs.