Dental caries remains as the main oral condition with the greatest impact on children’s quality of life

Abstract

PurposeThe objective of this study was to assess the negative impact of dental caries on the OHRQoL of 8- to 10-year-old Brazilian children.MethodsThis population-based case-control study involved 546 children (8–10 years old), 182 cases with a high negative impact on OHRQoL and 364 controls with a low negative impact on OHRQoL. Children’s OHRQOL was measured using the Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ8-10). Cases and controls (1x2 ratio) were individually matched by school and gender. Dental caries experience, malocclusion, and traumatic dental injuries were used as independent variables. Dental examinations were carried out at school during daytime hours by two calibrated examiners (Kappa = 0.93-interexaminer and 0.95- intraexaminer). The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, conditional bivariate and multiple logistic regression, with the significance level set at 5%.ResultsThere was no significant difference in traumatic dental injuries and malocclusion between the case and control groups (p>0.05). Children with DMFT/dmft ≥3 had a 2.06-fold (95%CI = 1.28–3.31, p = 0.003) greater chance of experiencing a high negative impact on OHRQoL than those with DMFT/dmft = 0ConclusionChildren with high dental caries experience are more likely to present a high negative impact on OHRQoL than those with no dental caries experience.

Prevalence of early loss of primary molar and its impact in schoolchildren's quality of life

“…However, although these high figures of early loss, no previous studies have evaluated if the early loss of primary molars negatively impact the OHRQoL of children. Most earlier investigations have focused in dental caries in several stages of progress (including teeth missed due to dental caries), but the impact of early loss specifically has been not investigated yet. Therefore, our main objective was to evaluate if the loss of primary molars presented negative impact on children's quality of life, independently of dental caries.…”

“…These comparisons were carried out through multilevel Poisson's regression analysis considering the presence or not of early tooth loss and the presence of dental caries to adjust the analysis. This adjustment was made because dental caries has consistently presented a negative impact on OHRQoL of children …”

“…Many studies have studied the impact of different oral health problems on oral health‐related quality of life (OHRQoL) of children from 8 to 10 years old . Even though dental caries has been the oral health disease that provoke higher negative impact on OHRQoL, other conditions have also presented negative impact on children's quality of life, such as traumatic injuries, temporomandibular disorder and malocclusions …”

“…Although early primary tooth loss has present high prevalence in some regions, there is no evidence related to the impact of early losses of primary molars on the OHRQoL of children. This condition has been extensively studied and consistently impacts OHRQoL of adults and elderlies, but, to the best of our knowledge, no previous study has evaluated this issue in children.…”

The impact of a prospective 4‐year longitudinal school intervention for improving oral health and oral health inequalities in primary schoolchildren in Flanders‐Belgium

“…Deprived oral health can have a negative impact on the quality of life . Children with poor oral health are almost three times more likely to miss days from school as a result of toothache, and this directly affects school performance .…”