EVALUATION OF ORAL HEALTH RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS ATTENDING ENDODONTIC DEPARTMENT IN DENTAL HOSPITAL, A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Objective: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the oral hygiene related quality of life in patients attending endodontic department and to access the relation of age and gender with Oral Health Related Quality Of Life.
 Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study based on Oral Health Related Quality Of Life was done on patients attending endodontic department in a private dental hospital during the month of May 2018. Convenient sampling technique was used. All the patients attending endodontic department for Root Canal Treatment aged between 16-60 were included in the study. Any patient attending the department for re-RCT and medically compromised were excluded from the study The OHIP 14 questionnaire was used, which is divided into different conceptual dimensions i.e. functional dimension, physical pain, psychological pain, physical discomfort, psychological discomfort, physical disability, social disability and handicap. Spss ver20 was used for analysis and p value of ± 0.05 was considered significant.
 Results: A total of 100 participants were included in the study. Out of which 42(42%) were male and 58(58%) were females. The mean age of the participants was 32.34 years. The mean OHIP score of this study was 21.95, whereas the minimum value was recorded as 1 and maximum value was recorded as 54.None of the participants showed OHIP score of zero. 24(24%) of the participants felt tense, 21% participants had painful aching while 20 (20%) reported to be self conscious due to problem with their teeth.7(7%) reported that very often they have taste worsening and only 10(10%) had trouble pronouncing words. Chi square between Gender of subject and trouble pronouncing any words showed a highly significant result (p-value= 0.058) A highly significant relationship was observed between both items of physical disability and Gender of subject(p-value 0.037 and 0.022).
 Conclusion: All the patients attending endodontic department were unsatisfied with their OHRQOL up to some extent. Patients experienced psychological discomfort and disability along with physical pain which in turn leads to compromised quality of life.