Quality of life assessment in patients with implant-supported and resin-bonded fixed prosthesis for bounded edentulous spaces.
OBJECTIVE
Dental implants have become increasingly popular in the prosthetic rehabilitation of patients with bounded edentulous spaces. Oral condition-related quality of life (QOL) levels have rarely been assessed in these patients.


METHODS
Two groups of subjects with bounded edentulous spaces were studied: an implant-supported fixed prosthesis group (11 patients) and a resin-bonded fixed prosthesis group (33 patients). The two groups were well matched in terms of sex, age, missing units and location of missing units. The patients were requested to answer a self-administered QOL questionnaire with two major subscales - oral condition- and general condition-related QOL scores. The test-retest reliability of each question was pre-examined and found acceptable (mean Spearman rank correlation coefficient was 0.55 +/- 0.16). Mean QOL score differences between the two groups were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney U-test.


RESULTS
Mean oral condition-related QOL scores of the implant-supported and resin-bonded fixed prosthesis groups were 87.8 +/- 9.5 and 87.1 +/- 12.3% (P = 0.85), and mean general condition-related QOL scores were 73.8 +/- 14.8 and 71.6 +/- 15.2% (P = 0.95), respectively. No significant QOL differences between the two groups were observed in the two subscales.


CONCLUSIONS
In patients with bounded edentulous spaces, multidimensional QOL levels of patients with an implant-supported fixed prosthesis do not exceed those of patients with a resin-bonded fixed prosthesis in a short follow-up period.
Sonoyama
Wataru
W
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Rehabilitation, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine and Dentistry, Okayama, Japan.
Kuboki
Takuo
T
Okamoto
Soichiro
S
Suzuki
Hidenori
H
Arakawa
Hikaru
H
Kanyama
Manabu
M
Yatani
Hirofumi
H
Yamashita
Atsushi
A
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D003679:Deglutition / Q000502:physiology; D015921:Dental Implants / Q000523:psychology; D019094:Dental Prosthesis, Implant-Supported / Q000523:psychology; D016379:Denture, Partial, Fixed, Resin-Bonded / Q000523:psychology; D004955:Esthetics, Dental; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007576:Jaw, Edentulous, Partially / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008409:Mastication / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009909:Oral Health; D009910:Oral Hygiene; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D015921:Dental Implants