The impact of orofacial pain conditions on oral health-related quality of life: a systematic review.

Abstract

Pain in the orofacial region is one of the most common reasons for patients to seek dental treatment. Oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) can be affected not only by pain, but also by other oral disorders. Four main dimensions, Oral Function, Orofacial Pain, Orofacial Appearance and Psychosocial Impact, have been suggested to cover different areas of OHRQoL. The aim of this systematic review was to map the impact of orofacial pain conditions on the OHRQoL Orofacial Pain dimension (PROSPERO registry: CRD42017064033). Studies were included if they reported mean or median Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) scores for patients with odontogenic pain, oral mucosal pain/burning mouth syndrome (BMS), third molar extractions, or temporomandibular disorders (TMD). A PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, Cochrane, CINAHL, and PsycINFO search on June 8, 2017, updated January 14, 2019, combined with a manual search identified 2,104 articles. After screening the abstracts, 1,607 articles were reviewed in full text and 36 articles were included that reported OHIP data for 44 patient populations, including 5,849 patients. The typical impact of orofacial pain for all four conditions (odontogenic pain, oral mucosa pain/BMS, pain after third molar extractions and TMD) was between 2 and 3 on a converted OHIP scale of 0-8 with the highest reported impact for pain after third molar extractions. This review provides standardized information on the impact of OHRQoL of four orofacial pain conditions as a model for the Orofacial Pain dimension. Results show moderate impact for the pain dimension of OHRQoL in patients with common orofacial pain conditions.