Oral Health Related Quality of Life Assessment in Orthodontic Patients with Anchorage Reinforcement

Objectives: To assess oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL) among orthodontic patients who had been allocated into three methods of orthodontic anchorage; transpalatal arch (TPA), modified TPA-Nance (TPA-Nance) and mini-implant (MI). Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sungai Buloh and Puncak Perdana campus. Thirty-six orthodontic patients with anchorage requirement between 18 and 30 years old were recruited. The subjects were equally divided into three groups, which included 28 females and 8 males. The assessment of patients’ oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL) towards the anchorage supplementation using modified oral health impact profile (S-OHIP-14) questionnaires were carried out. The questionnaire was given at two time points, which was before the insertion of the allocated anchorage regime (T0) and after a week of insertion of the allocated anchorage regime (T1). Results: There was no statistical significant difference on functional limitation, physical pain, psychological discomfort, physical disability, psychological disability, social disability and handicap domains of OHIP-14 questionnaire between the three anchorage groups (p>0.05). Conclusion: The OHRQoL patterns, during the treatment with the anchorage reinforcement were very similar. This suggests that TPA, TPA-Nance and MI do not affect patients’ OHRQoL. The OHRQoL trends observed during the study can be communicated to patients and used to increase patients’ compliance since they are made aware of the whole treatment process.