Effect of Periodontal Therapy on Oral Health-related Quality of Life

Objective: To assess the effect of non-surgical periodontal therapy (NSPT) verses oral hygiene instruction (OHI) alone on the  oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) of patients diagnosed with moderate to advanced chronic periodontitis. Method: Thirty-two systemically healthy, non-smoking adults with moderate to advanced chronic periodontitis were selected from patients referred to the Periodontology Clinic, University Malaya Dental Centre. Age and gender matched pairs of patients were randomized to test (16 subjects) and control (16 subjects) groups. Subjects in the test group received NSPT comprising OHI, scaling and root planing while subjects in the control group received OHI only. Patients were reevaluated at 1 and 3 months post therapy. Oral health impact profile questionnaire (OHIP 14) was administered at baseline, 1 and 3 months follow up. Mann-Whitney test was used to analyse changes in OHRQoL between the 2 groups. Result: Median (IQR) for OHRQoL of both test and control groups at baseline was 53.0 (13.0) and 49.0 (10.8) (p=0.1), respectively. At 1 month follow up, no significant difference in improvement in OHRQoL was observed between the two groups [test group: 0.5 (7.8) vs control group: 0.0 (9.3), p=0.65). At 3 months follow up, there was greater improvement in the control group [5.0 (15.75)] as compared to the test group [2.0 (17.5)] (p=0.15) which was however not significant.  Conclusion: Both NSPT and OHI alone showed significant improvement in OHRQOL of the referred periodontitis patients at 3 months post-operation but no difference between the two treatments.