Satisfaction with dental condition and oral health-related quality of life of school-age children with dental pain in Ibadan, Nigeria

APPLICABILITY of DENTAL PATIENT REPORTED OUTCOMES in LOW RESOURCE SETTINGS -A CALL to BRIDGE the GAP in CLINICAL and COMMUNITY DENTISTRY

Low resource settings (LRSs) are typically regions where inadequate healthcare resources exist and the healthcare system does not meet the acceptable global standards. The problems encountered in LRS in oral and dental medicine could be related to lack of human personnel, e.g., insufficient numbers of dentists and other dental professionals, poor infrastructure, limited or remote treatment/care facilities, lack of dental materials and supplies as well as inadequate monitoring and evaluation of public health programs. Despite the limited human resources in LRS, such settings are currently experiencing a brain drain, a situation where there is massive emigration of highly trained and qualified healthcare professionals including dentists to other countries for better living conditions. To allocate health resources judiciously, exploration of alternatives to traditional oral health assessments, which are cheap, easily available, and patient-oriented, becomes pertinent. Thus, there is a need to consider the applicability of oral assessment tools such as dental patient-reported outcomes (dPROs) in general, and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in particular. Therefore, the aim of this narrative review was to describe opportunities for the applicability of dPROs in LRSs with a focus on Nigeria, based on empirical data. The applicability of dPROs and OHRQoL in LRS includes prevention, screening, diagnosis, assessment of oral health impact, application of the first step of targeted treatment, treatment evaluation, planning, and monitoring of public health programs, as well as research needs. dPROs could be very useful in LRS because their practical advantages may be utilized to improve patient and population health.

Impact of oral hygiene habits on oral health-related quality of life of in-school adolescents in Ibadan, Nigeria

Background

Recent evidence has shown that the prevalence of periodontal diseases is still high among adolescents and, thus, there is an impetus to promote good oral hygiene habits among them through schools. There is a need to provide baseline data on the oral hygiene habits of adolescents and how it impacts their oral health-related quality of life for appropriate intervention to be instituted. Moreover, oral health-related quality of life describes how oral health affects the daily activities of individuals; thus, it provides a holistic means of involving individuals in making decisions about their oral health including uptake of oral hygiene habits.

Aim

To assess the impact of oral hygiene habits on adolescents' oral health-related quality of life.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,800 adolescents aged 14–18 years attending 36 Senior Secondary Schools in the metropolis of Ibadan, Nigeria. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire, which assessed students' sociodemographic characteristics, oral hygiene habits, and oral health-related quality of life with COHIP-SF19. Data obtained was analyzed with SPSS version 25 and the p-value was set at <5%.

Results

The mean age of the adolescents was 15.16 (±1.16) years. Many 1,094 (60.3%) cleaned their teeth twice or more often daily with 126 (7.0%) cleaning after meals and 1,519 (84.4%) changing their tooth cleaning agent at three months intervals or less. About 1,215 (67.5%) spent three minutes or longer in cleaning their teeth. Only a few 238 (13.2%) cleaned interdentally and 137 (7.6%) used dental floss. The OHRQoL scores of the adolescents ranged from 9–76. A total of 1,612 (93.5%) had at least an impact on their OHRQoL. Those who cleaned their teeth more frequently (twice or more) were more likely to have better OHRQoL (OR = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.1–2.4, p = 0.025) and those who did not clean interdentally were more likely to have better OHRQoL (OR = 2.8, 95% CI = 1.2–6.5, p = 0.014) than others.

Conclusion

The oral hygiene habits of the adolescents were suboptimal and those who cleaned their teeth twice or more often each day had fewer impacts on their OHRQoL, whereas those who engaged in interdental cleaning had higher impacts on their OHRQoL than others.