Oral health-related quality of life of preschool children according to reasons for seeking dental care

Purpose: to evaluate parental perception on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQL) of preschool children attending a Dentistry School according to the reason care was sought. Method: 45 parents and their 0-6-year-old children were included. Twenty five children were taken to the dental clinic due to dental trauma (Group 1), and 20 due to caries or pain (Group 2). Caretakers were asked to complete the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS) to evaluate child’s OHRQoL. The ECOHIS includes a child impact section and a family impact section and varies from 0 to 52. Children over 4 years of age expressed their feelings on their teeth by an instrument with drawings. Results: mean ECOHIS score was 10.6 for the whole sample and 10.1 and 11.6 for the trauma and caries groups, respectively. Caries-bearing children had higher scores on the oral symptons and on the family function domain. Parent disstress was higher for the trauma-bearing child. In group 1, 36% (5) children expressed dissatisfaction with their oral health, whereas in group 2 the dissatisfaction level raised to 53% (8 children). The results showed that the impact on OHRQoL was high in the studied population. Caries/pain had more impact on the children, whereas dental trauma had a higher impact on the family.