The diagnosis of periodontal disease is commonly based on objective evaluations of the patient's medical/dental history as well as clinical and radiographic examinations. However, periodontal disease should also be evaluated subjectively through measures that quantify its impact on oral health-related quality of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of periodontal disease on quality of life among adolescents, adults and older adults. A systematic search of the literature was performed for scientific articles published up to July 2015 using electronic databases and a manual search. Two independent reviewers performed the selection of the studies, extracted the data and assessed the methodological quality. Thirty-four cross-sectional studies involving any age group, except children, and the use of questionnaires for the assessment of the impact of periodontal disease on quality of life were included. Twenty-five studies demonstrated that periodontal disease was associated with a negative impact on quality of life, with severe periodontitis exerting the most significant impact by compromising aspects related to function and esthetics. Unlike periodontitis, gingivitis was associated with pain as well as difficulties performing oral hygiene and wearing dentures. Gingivitis was also negatively correlated with comfort. The results indicate that periodontal disease may exert an impact on quality of life of individuals, with greater severity of the disease related to greater impact. Longitudinal studies with representative samples are needed to ensure validity of the findings.

Introduction: Oral health self-perception is the individual assessment of the oral conditions. Objective: To evaluate the oral health selfperception of adults and the factors that influence this perception. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at a primary healthcare unit in São Luís, Maranhão. Data were collected through the administration of a not validated questionnaire and a clinical examination at the dental office. The outcome was oral health self-perception and the independent variables were age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, schooling, monthly household income, dental treatment, the conclusion of treatment, last type of service used, toothache in the previous six months, untreated dental caries, missing teeth, the DMFT index, root caries and removable partial denture. Descriptive statistics and the chi-square tests were performed with a 5% level of significance. Results: The sample was composed by 129 adults aged 25 to 55 years. The female gender (80.6%), brown skin color (62.8%) and low income (55.8%) were the most prevalent independent variables. Ninety-three percent of the sample had undergone some type of dental treatment, but only 36.4% concluded treatment. Seventy-nine percent perceived their oral health as negative. No significant associations were found between a negative self-perception and the independent variables analyzed. Conclusion: Most of surveyed individuals had a negative self-perception of their oral health, however, the perception was not associated with any of the exploratory variables.