Development of a patient-based questionnaire about emotional and social issues related to eating with dentures

In order to fully assess the impact of prosthetic rehabilitation and to formulate appropriate dietary advice, in-depth information about patients' experiences of eating with dentures is needed. The objective of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire that accurately reflected the real concerns of patients with dental prostheses about the aspects of their life related to eating, using detailed information derived from qualitative interviews with patients.

Themes around factors related to eating with dentures were derived from interviews with patients (n=66) with either implant-supported mandibular over-dentures or conventional dentures. The themes were used to design a self-completed questionnaire with questions scored on a visual analogue scale and additionally questions answered using free text. The content and face validity of the questionnaire was tested on a different group of patients (n=10) with implant-supported mandibular over-dentures ('implant-supported') or conventional dentures. Test-retest reliability analysis was conducted on a further group of 30 patients (n=15 implant-supported; n=15 conventional dentures).

A questionnaire has been developed with 33 questions scored on a visual analogue scale and 31 open questions designed to collect further information as free text. Themes identified were around social, emotional and practical issues about eating. The instrument has good internal reliability with a Cronbach alpha values of 0.86-0.95 and good test-retest reliability with intra-class correlation coefficients 0.87-0.92 across the domains.

A patient-based instrument has been developed to measure emotional and social issues related to eating with dentures (ESIRE questionnaire). The questionnaire will be a useful tool in future trials of prosthetic rehabilitation.