Dental status and quality of life in long-term head and neck cancer survivors.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze how the dental status of long-term head and neck cancer survivors affects their subjective quality of life.


METHODS
Observational case series.


METHODS
A convenience sample of 5-year head and neck cancer survivors underwent the following battery of tests: 1) targeted head and neck examination, 2) updated medical history, 3) dental evaluation, 4) standardized quality of life questionnaires.


RESULTS
Eighty-six survivors were included in the study. The following associations were identified: 1) those who became edentulous secondary to cancer treatment and those without occlusion at time of the study demonstrated worse Pain, Activity, Recreation/Entertainment, Chewing, Swallowing, Speech, Eating in Public, Normalcy of Diet, Physical Well-Being, Social/Family Well-Being, Functional Well-Being, and Additional Concerns scores; 2) higher Decayed/Missing/Filled scores were associated with worse Pain, Disfigurement, Activity, Recreation/Entertainment, Employment, Chewing, Swallowing, Speech, Eating in Public, Understandability of Speech, Normalcy of Diet, Physical Well-Being, Additional Concerns scores, and weight loss; 3) decreased oral opening measurements were associated with worse Chewing, Swallowing, Eating in Public, Normalcy of Diet, Additional Concerns scores, and weight loss; 4) edentulous survivors who did not use dentures had worse Pain, Activity, Recreation/Entertainment, Understandability of Speech, and Eating in Public scores.


CONCLUSIONS
Although previous studies have shown that many of the effects of cancer treatment disappear between 1 and 3 years, this study shows that the dental status has a persistent impact on subjective quality of life.
Duke
Rebecca L
RL
Department of Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences, The Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226-3522, USA.
Campbell
Bruce H
BH
Indresano
A Thomas
AT
Eaton
Derek J
DJ
Marbella
Anne M
AM
Myers
Katherine B
KB
Layde
Peter M
PM
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D001294:Attitude to Health; D004245:DMF Index; D003679:Deglutition / Q000502:physiology; D003778:Dentures; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008409:Mastication / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009066:Mouth, Edentulous / Q000523:psychology; D009909:Oral Health; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology; D013065:Speech Intelligibility / Q000502:physiology; D017741:Survivors; D014313:Trismus / Q000523:psychology