European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

ASSESSMENT OF ORAL HEALTH RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE USING GOHAI PRE AND POST DENTAL REHABILITATION: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY.

Dr. Vittaldas Shetty, Dr. Dheeraj Kalra*, Dr. Vidhi Karia, Dr. Rajeev Haveri, Dr. Rinku Kalra

ABSTRACT

Background: In India, the rate of growth of elderly population is much faster than the growth of the total population. With advancing age the probability of tooth loss and subsequent loss of masticatory function is inevitable, leading to a compromised state of chewing, eating, swallowing disabilities affecting nutritional intake. Aim: To investigate the changes of OHRQoL of edentulous patients prior to and at 3 months post dental rehabilitation. Material: The present study is an analytical study carried out among 107 edentulous patients with a felt need to get the missing teeth replaced and those who were healthy enough to undergo dental examination and answer the questionnaire to investigate the changes of OHRQoL of edentulous patients prior to and 3 months post rehabilitation using GOHAI questionnaire. Chi-squared test Kolmogorov-Simirnov test and Wilcoxson Signed Rank test were used to analyze the data. Results: An average no. of 3.14 (+ 6.90) teeth was missing among the study participants. All 107 respondents had need for dental rehabilitation. GOHAI pre and post dental rehabilitation showed a statistically highly significant difference (p<0.05) overall except for a few questions like Questions 3, 9 where a non-significant difference was seen (p>0.05). Conclusion: Dental rehabilitation significantly changes oral health related quality of life.

Keywords: GOHAI, dental rehabilitation, Oral Health Related Quality of Life