Oral health related quality of life in adult population attending the outpatient department of a hospital in Chennai, India

Currently there is a growing interest in oral health outcomes in how oral health affects quality of life. Objectives: To describe oral health related quality of life in adult population attending the outpatient department of Meenakshi Ammal Dental College and Hospital and to assess the relationship between clinical measures of oral health status and oral health related quality of life. Materials and method: A cross sectional study was carried out for a period of 2 months on 307 randomly selected individuals reporting to the OPD of Meenakshi Ammal Dental College and Hospital, Chennai. An investigation was done by using a combination of questionnaire and clinical examination. Questionnaire was on oral health impact profile14 (OHIP14) and the subjects were clinically examined for dental caries using DMFT index and oral hygiene status by using oral hygiene indexsimplified. Results: The mean total OHIP -14 score was 15.5(SD 9.6).The mean decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) index score was 5.2 (SD 2.9) and the mean oral hygiene indexsimplified (OHI-S) was 2.55 (SD 1.3). Caries status and the number of missing teeth were found to be significantly correlated with most of the sub domains of the OHIP-14. PISSN