Comparison of perceived oral health in patients with temporomandibular disorders and dental anxiety using oral health-related quality of life profiles.
BACKGROUND
Oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) instruments provide information beyond what is represented in their summary scores. Individual item information also provides useful insight into patient-related oral health problems. Our study aim was to compare patients' perceived impact from temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and from dental anxiety on oral health using item profiles contained within the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP).


METHODS
We measured OHRQoL using the German version of the 14-item OHIP in 416 TMD patients, 173 dental anxiety patients, and 2,026 general population subjects.


RESULTS
Dental anxiety patients demonstrated the highest mean OHIP summary scores, i.e., the worst OHRQoL (22.4 in anxiety patients, 14.0 in TMD patients, 4.1 in general population; P<0.001). The prevalence of frequently occurring responses of the individual items was 6-62% in dental anxiety patients, 3-40% in TMD patients, and 0.2-0.4% in the general population. The item prevalence of both patient groups was very similar for functional and pain-related OHRQoL domains. Dental anxiety patients indicated problems more frequently than TMD patients in the OHIP domains of psychological discomfort and psychological disability.


CONCLUSIONS
This insight into patients' perceived oral health provided by OHIP item profiles may be important for patient diagnosis and outcome assessment in the clinical setting.
Department of Prosthodontics and Materials Science, University of Leipzig, Nürnberger Str. 57, Leipzig 04103, Germany. oliver.schierz@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Oliver
O
Schierz
Mike T
MT
John
Daniel R
DR
Reissmann
Mats
M
Mehrstedt
András
A
Szentpétery
D000328:Adult; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009909:Oral Health; D010465:Perception; D015995:Prevalence; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013705:Temporomandibular Joint Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*