Quality of life of patients with total loss of teeth and psychometric properties of the OHIP-20 DG enquireR. Part 2. Monitoring stages of dental orthopedic treatment

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The most affordable and economical types of prosthetics are modern designs of completely removable plate prostheses. However, in most cases, they do not meet the patients expectation. OHIP-20-DG, which is a specific quality-of-life (QOL) questionnaire, is a valid tool that allows diagnosis of patients response to treatment, assessment of the effectiveness of prosthetics, and better understanding of patients complaints and dissatisfaction. AIM: To create a sensitive specific questionnaire of dental QOL indicators for patients with total loss of teeth based on the well-known valid questionnaire Dental health impact profile OHIP-49 and to examine patients quality of life before and after prosthetic application. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The QOL of 50 patients with total loss of teeth (17 women and 33 men, aged 4287 years), who received removable dentures with an acrylic polymer base and set teeth, was examined. QOL monitoring was performed using the proposed specific questionnaire OHIP-20 DG. RESULTS: The integral QOL index increased to 47.42% after prosthetic application and to 78.43% following adaptation to the prosthesis after 6 months. Age and gender differences in the QOL level of patients were determined. According to the domains physical discomfort, psychological discomfort, and social maladjustment, men and women assessed their satisfaction with their physical, psychological, emotional, and social functioning differently. Gender differences in patients aged 55 years in the psychological discomfort and social maladjustment domains were significant (p=0.065) when compared with those of patients aged 55 years (p=0.115). CONCLUSION: Results of monitoring the QOL of patients with total loss of teeth before, during the stages, and after application of prosthetics with fully removable dentures, obtained using the OHIP-20 DG questionnaire, allow us to reliably assess the effectiveness of prosthetics.