Association between Clinical Signs of Oral Lichen Planus and Oral Health-Related Quality of Life: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Subjective patient’s symptoms and Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) are recommended to be involved in oral lichen planus (OLP) studies. This study aims to assess the OHRQoL of OLP patients, and their associations with pain and OLP in Thai patients. Sixty-nine patients were interviewed using the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) for pain perception and Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP) index. OLP signs examined included localization, types, number of affected sides and clinical severity using the Thongprasom sign scoring system. There were significant associations (rs = 0.490, p < 0.001) between clinical severity and the intensity of oral impacts as well as pain (rs = 0.298, p = 0.013). The intensity of oral impacts and pain increased according to the increasing OLP clinical severity, except for the white striae lesions (Thongprasom sign score 1). The erosive/ulcerative OLP lesions (Thongprasom sign scores 4 and 5) were the most painful symptom and had the highest degree of oral impacts (p < 0.001). No significant associations were found between the number of affected lesion sides and OHRQoL (p = 0.316) and pain (p = 0.284). OHRQoL was associated with OLP type and clinical severity but not with the number of affected sides.