Assessment of paediatric quality of life in temporomandibular joint ankylosis patients after interpositional arthroplasty: a pilot study.

A comprehensive evaluation of treatment outcomes in paediatric temporomandibular joint (TMJ) ankylosis patients should include the assessment of quality of life (QoL) along with the traditional clinical indicators. This longitudinal retrospective descriptive study evaluated the impact on QoL of interpositional arthroplasty for the treatment of TMJ ankylosis in 18 patients between 8 and 10 years of age. The subjects completed the Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ 8-10) while their parents/primary caregivers completed the Parental/Caregiver Perceptions Questionnaire (PCPQ), once before and then at 3 months after the surgery. There was a significant improvement in mean cumulative scores for both questionnaires. Significant improvements were seen in the oral symptoms, functional limitation (P<0.02), and social wellbeing domains (P<0.05) of the CPQ, and in the oral symptoms and functional limitation (P<0.05) domains of the PCPQ. The improvements in the physical domains were considered important for treatment success by both groups. The psychosocial domains were observed to be largely unaffected by the condition. The level of agreement between the two groups was higher for physical domains as compared to psychosocial domains. This study indicates that QoL outcomes in paediatric TMJ ankylosis patients are largely influenced by the physical factors, while the psychosocial factors play a secondary role.