Association between oral health-related quality of life and atraumatic restorative treatment in school children: an exploratory study.

BACKGROUND

The present study's objectives were to compare the perceptions of oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) among school children presents dental caries with that of caries-free school children, and to evaluate the subjective impact of atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) on the OHRQoL of school children.

DESIGN

Exploratory study.

SETTING

Public school in Piracicaba, Brazil.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The sample was composed of 30 children in the age-group of 8-10 years. The children were divided into two groups: one with caries and other without caries. The information related to OHRQoL was obtained through the administration of the Child Perceptions Questionnaires (CPQ 8-10 ). To evaluate the impact of ART on the school children's OHRQoL, the CPQ 8-10 was re-administered 4 weeks after the initial treatment. For statistical analysis we used the nonparametric Wilcoxon test for two dependent variables (test and re-test groups) and the nonparametric Mann-Whitney test for independent variables (test and control groups).

RESULTS

It was observed that children with dental caries reported larger impact of oral health conditions on the quality of life when compared with the caries-free group, especially in the emotional and social well-being domains ( P ≤.05). After the school children who presented with dental caries received ART, there was improvement in the median scores of CPQ 8-10 in all of the domains, but particularly in the functional limitation domain ( P ≤.05).

CONCLUSION

Dental caries exerts a strong influence on the OHRQoL of children. ART was shown to be a simple and painless caries management approach that could improve the OHRQoL of school children.