Impact of oral health problems on the quality of life of preschool children: a case-control study.

BACKGROUND: There is a need for investigations into the impact of oral problems on OHRQoL with study designs that offer greater strength of evidence.

AIM: To evaluate the impact of dental caries and traumatic dental injury (TDI) on the OHRQoL of Brazilian preschool children.

DESIGN: A population-based, matched, case-control study was conducted involving 415 children aged 3-5 years enrolled at public and private preschools. The case group (impact on OHRQoL) and control group (no impact on OHRQoL) were matched for age, sex, and monthly household income at a 1 : 4 ratio (83 cases and 332 controls). Impact on OHRQoL was assessed using the B-ECOHIS. Dental caries and TDI were determined through clinical oral examinations. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics and conditional logistic regression analysis (P ≤ 0.05; 95% CI).

RESULTS: The most frequent responses on the B-ECOHIS were 'felt pain' (79.7%) and 'difficulty in eating' (35.0%). The following variables were significantly associated with impact on OHRQoL: caries severity (OR = 12.58; 95% CI: 5.31-29.79) and TDI (OR: 2.11; 95% CI: 1.23-3.62).

CONCLUSIONS: Caries severity and TDI impacted the OHRQoL of preschool children.