Oral Health-Related Quality of Life Improvement After Treatment With Fixed and Removable Dental Prostheses

Missing teeth negatively affect oral functions and masticatory efficiency, which in turn can reduce a person's quality of life (QoL). This study is aimed at evaluating the effect of dental prostheses on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in adults.

This is an observational study to measure patients' OHRQoL using a cohort study design before and after treatment with different dental prostheses (fixed and removable). Ninety-seven patients who received dental prostheses responded to a questionnaire before dental prosthetic treatment and then after the completion of the treatment. The conduction was face-to-face or via telephone interviews. The questionnaire is divided into two parts to verify the demographic and the patient's related factors and to measure OHRQoL using the Oral Health Impact Profile-5 (OHIP-5).

Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and multivariable analysis were conducted using Stata Statistical Software: Release 14.2 (2016; StataCorp LLC, College Station, Texas, United States) and were at a 0.05 significance level. Data were collected from the 97 patients, of which 70% were male with a mean age of 39.5 and 30% were female with a mean age of 43. The educational level showed that only 15% of the patients received a bachelor's degree and that the remaining 85% stopped at a high school general educational level. The received prosthetic treatment consisted of 23% single crowns, 29% fixed partial dentures (FPD), 20% removable partial dentures (RPD), and 28% complete dentures. Self-reported overall health indicated that 64% of the patients had very good health and 36% had good health or a lower quality of health. There was a significant difference in OHIP scores before prosthetic treatment (M=5.4, SD=0.57) and after prosthetic treatment (M=3.2, SD=0.49) with no significant difference in the reduction in OHIP scores between fixed prostheses (M=-2.8, SD=0.64) and removable prostheses (M=-1.5, SD=0.74). The amount of improvement in OHIP answers after wearing a prosthesis was significant (p<0.0001). Linear regression indicated that having a history of discomfort from general oral health improved (decreased OHIP score) by 2.2 after prosthetic dental treatment compared to participants without a history of general oral health discomfort when all other variables are held constant.

Within the limitations of this study, it can be concluded that restoration of missing teeth with a dental prosthesis has an immense impact on individuals' QoL, regardless of the type of dental prosthetic restoration.