Oral Health-Related Quality of Life in Dutch Children Diagnosed with Oligodontia. A Cross-Sectional Study.

Marieke A.P Filius,Anita Visser,Marco S Cune,Gerry M Raghoebar,Arjan Vissink,Marijn Créton

doi:10.3390/ijerph16132371

Abstract

There is need to get insight into condition-specific oral health-related quality of life in Dutch children with oligodontia. Between October 2014 and March 2017, 11–17-year-old oligodontia patients were approached to join a study assessing the impact of oligodontia on condition-specific oral health-related quality of life (OHrQoL). The patients received a condition-specific OHrQoL questionnaire prior to the start of orthodontic treatment. Non-oligodontia children in the same age group, but also requiring orthodontic treatment, were approached to serve as a control. The Fisher’s Exact Test was used for comparison purposes with the control group because of the small group sizes. Furthermore, subgroup analyses were performed for gender, age, number of congenitally missing teeth, tooth agenesis in the aesthetic region, orthodontic classification and microdontia via independent t-tests. p-values of <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Twenty-eight oligodontia patients and 23 controls agreed to participate. The oligodontia patients’ scores were comparable to the controls except for the items about dental appearance and treatment complexity. The impact of oligodontia on OHrQoL in youngsters is limited and mainly concerns dental appearance and the complexity of the treatment.

Highlights

Hypodontia is a condition in which one or more teeth are missing as a consequence of tooth agenesis
Having congenitally missing teeth is likely to have an impact on perceived oral health-related quality of life (OHrQoL) in children [3,4]
The impact of congenitally absent teeth on the children’s OHrQoL requires further verification, because the OHrQoL has only been reported on the basis of non-condition specific questionnaires [3,4,5]

Summary

Introduction

Hypodontia is a condition in which one or more teeth are missing as a consequence of tooth agenesis. As a consequence of missing teeth, children with oligodontia can develop functional or aesthetic problems that may result in a physical and emotional burden, especially during the turbulent years of adolescence [2]. Having congenitally missing teeth is likely to have an impact on perceived oral health-related quality of life (OHrQoL) in children [3,4]. It was reported that the OHrQoL in patients with congenitally missing teeth is comparable to that of routine orthodontic controls [5]. The impact of congenitally absent teeth on the children’s OHrQoL requires further verification, because the OHrQoL has only been reported on the basis of non-condition specific questionnaires [3,4,5]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion