Oral health-related quality of life in orthognathic surgery patients.

Introduction: In the last decade, an increasing number of studies focusing on the impact of oral deformities and illnesses on quality of life have been published. Our goal was to evaluate the impact of oral problems on quality of life in 3 groups of adult patients in need of orthognathic-surgical treatment.

Methods: A total of 117 patients were recruited from the Clinic of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the State University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil: 20 in the initial phase, 70 in the presurgical phase (presurgical orthodontic preparation), and 27 in the postsurgical phase. The impact of treatment phase on oral health-related quality of life was evaluated with the oral health impact profile (OHIP-14). OHIP-14 scores were calculated by an additive method, and the participants were divided on the basis of level of impact into 2 groups: high impact (scores, >11) and low impact (scores, < or =11).

Results: Compared with patients in the postsurgical phase, those who needed orthognathic surgical treatment but had not yet begun it and those who were in the presurgical phase of treatment were 6.48 and 3.14 times more likely, respectively, to experience a negative impact of their oral condition.

Conclusions: Among those undergoing or anticipating orthognathic-surgical treatment, orthognathic surgery positively affects the patients' quality of life.