Salud ortodontica

Original Article

Fixed Orthodontic Appliance Therapy and Its Impact on Oral Health-Related Quality of Life in Chinese Patients
Mu Chena; Da-Wei Wangb; Li-Ping Wuc
ABSTRACT Objective: To determine changes in oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) during fixed orthodontic appliance therapy in Chinese patients. Materials and Methods: Two-hundred fifty Chinese orthodontic patientscompleted six distinct intervals of the 14-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14, Chinese version): before treatment (T0); after the placement of the fixed appliance at 1 week (T1), 1 month (T2), 3 months (T3), and 6 months (T4); and posttreatment (T5). Results: The overall response rate was 88.8% (222 of 250). Significant differences of overall OHIP-14 scores could be found between any two time points(P , .001), except for between T0 and T2 (P . .05) and between T3 and T4 (P . .05). Overall scores at T1 were significantly higher than the scores at the other intervals (P , .001), with a significant change in the scores on physical pain (P , .001), psychological discomfort (P , .001), and physical disability (P , .001). Scores at T5 were lowest among the six time points (P , .001). Conclusions:Fixed orthodontic appliance therapy did affect Chinese patients’ OHRQoL. Patients were considerably compromised in terms of their overall OHRQoL until approximately 1 month after insertion. The severity of the compromised condition in terms of overall OHRQoL was greatest at 1 week with the reported impact on physical pain, psychological discomfort, and physical disability. Patients’ OHRQoL wasbetter after they completed the orthodontic treatment than before or during treatment. (Angle Orthod 2010;80:49–53.) KEY WORDS: Quality of life; Orthodontic treatment; Patient assessment

INTRODUCTION The oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) index provides an insight into how individual oral health status affects overall quality of life (QoL) and how oral health care brings aboutimprovements to patients’ overall QoL.1,2 It may serve as a foundation for assessing,
a Graduate MS Student in Orthodontics, Guanghua College of Stomatology, and Lab of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. b Associate Professor, Department of Orthodontic, Affiliated Stomatology Hospital, Guanghua College of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. c Deputy Chief Dentist inDepartment of Orthodontic, Affiliated Stomatology Hospital, Guanghua College of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. Corresponding author: Dr Da-Wei Wang, Department of Orthodontic, Affiliated Stomatology Hospital, Guanghua College of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University, Lingyuan Xilu No. 56, Guangzhou, 510055, PR China (e-mail: 0wangdawei0@gmail.com)

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Accepted: April2009. Submitted: January 2009. 2010 by The EH Angle Education and Research Foundation, Inc.
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planning, implementing, and evaluating outcomes of dental hygiene care.1 Recently, performing a QoL evaluation as it relates to the dental field has attracted more and more clinical doctors and researchers. Orthodontic treatment is different from most other medical interventions in that it aims tocorrect variations from an arbitrary norm.3 The reason why people frequently undertake orthodontic treatment is to effectuate an improvement in esthetics and a subsequent enhancement of psychosocial well-being, which contributes to QoL. OHRQoL assessments are recommended in orthodontics for a number of reasons: to study treatment needs and outcomes, to study a therapy’s efficiency and impact during saidperiod of treatment, and as part of clinical trials, which have the potential to improve the quality of care. Furthermore, understanding patients’ expectations of treatment can help detail the parameters for informed consent as well as help patients develop coping methods to deal with treatment sequelae.4 Increasingly, patient-centered measures are used to assess these subjective attributes in...