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Halitosis and oral health-related quality of life: a case report
Yab Buunk-Werkhoven1, M Dijkstra-le Clercq, El Verheggen-Udding
1Forensic Psychiatric Centre, Groningen, The Netherlands. yvonne@apbuunk.com
Objectives:
This is a clinical case of a 36-year-old Dutch male, patient in the Dr. S. van Mesdag Forensic Psychiatric Centre in Groningen. It demonstrates a short-time effect of a tailored oral hygiene self-care intervention in three sessions over a period of 3 months on halitosis and a patient's oral health-related quality of life (OH-QoL).
Methods:
In addition to a dental screening and professional oral hygiene care, a semi-structured interview was conducted by the dental hygienist, and questionnaires were administered. The questionnaires included were; the Dutch version of the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14-NL; used as a measurement of OH-QoL), scales for expected social outcomes for having healthy teeth, attitudes towards oral hygiene behaviour (OHB) and dental anxiety.
Results:
Clinical observations showed an improvement in patient's OHB, while the extreme foetor-ex-ore was reduced to an acceptable level. A retrospective assessment showed that patient's attitude towards the recommended OHB together with his self-perceived OH-QoL had positively increased.
Conclusions:
This case highlights the value of professional individual oral hygiene instructions performed by a dental hygienist. It also illustrates that a patient's effective OHB may play an important role in the reduction in halitosis and self-perceived OH-QoL. Finally, the retrospective version of the OHIP-14-NL may be an adequate method to assess self-perceived OH-QoL within a relative short period of time.
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