Oral health related to quality of life in patients with stomatological diseases.

AIM To describe the oral health-related quality of life (OHR-QoL) in patients with stomatological diseases. METHODS All new patients seen in the Stomatology Clinic, from August 2008 to July 2009 were selected. OHR-QoL was measured using OHIP-14, in face-to-face interviews. The stomatological diseases were classified into groups according to their origin. OHIP-14 data were used to calculate two variables: prevalence and severity. RESULTS The questionnaire was completed by 113 subjects, with a mean of 53.77 years; 63.7% women; 38% of the subjects reported one or more OHR-QoL impacts "fairly often" or "very often" in the last 6 months. The overall result of OHIP-14 index showed a mean of 14.35 (+/-12.01). There was no statistical significance between the stomatological disease groups and the prevalence scores (p=0.25) and mean severity scores (p=0.57). CONCLUSIONS It seems that bad oral conditions affected quality of life of these patients, especially physical pain and psychological discomfort.