title: Assessment of the quality of life in maxillectomy patients: A longitudinal study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To longitudinally assess the quality of life in maxillectomy patients rehabilitated with obturator prosthesis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-six subjects were enrolled in the span of 16 months, out of which six were dropouts. Subjects (age group 20-60 years) with maxillary defects, irrespective of the cause, planned for definite obturator prosthesis, were recruited. The Hindi version of European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Head and Neck version 1 of Quality of Life Questionnaire was used before surgical intervention and one month after definitive obturator. Questionnaire includes 35 questions related to the patient's physical health, well being, psychological status, social relation and environmental conditions. The data were processed with statistical package for social science (SPSS). Probability level of P<.05 was considered statistically significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The quality of life after rehabilitation with obturator prosthesis was 81.48% (±13.64) on average. On item-level, maximum mean scores were obtained for items problem with teeth (1.87 ± 0.94), pain in mouth (1.80 ± 0.92), trouble in eating (1.70 ± 0.88), trouble in talking to other people (1.60 ± 1.22), problems in swallowing solid food (1.57 ± 1.22) and bothering appearance (1.53 ± 1.04); while minimum scores were obtained for the items coughing (1.17 ± 0.38), hoarseness of voice (1.17 ± 0.53), painful throat (1.13 ± 0.43), trouble in having social contacts with friends (1.10 ± 0.40) and trouble having physical contacts with family or friends (1.10 ± 0.31).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Obturator prosthesis is a highly positive and non-invasive approach to improve the quality of life of patients with maxillectomy defects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Prosthodontics and Dental Material Sciences, King George Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Pradeep
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Habib Ahmad
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Alvi
authors.forename: Jitendra
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Balendra Pratap
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Sunit Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Jurel
authors.forename: Lakshya
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Himanshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aggarwal
keywords: Maxillectomy; Obturator prosthesis; Oral cancer; Quality of life