THE IMPACT OF MALOCCLUSION ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE RELATED TO CHILDREN'S ORAL HEALTH THROUGH THE PERCEPTION OF CHILDREN AND THEIR CAREGIVERS

Abstract

This study focused on assessing the quality of life in children with malocclusion, the caregivers’ perception related to children’s quality of life, in addition to the correlation between quality of life and the severity levels of malocclusion. The Child Perception Questionnaires (CPQ8-10 and CPQ11-14) and Parental-Caregiver Perceptions Questionnaire (P-CPQ) were performed. For this purpose, 656 participants were selected (328 children aged 8-14 years and their 328 caregivers). Children were examined and divided into two groups according to the presence (case) or absence (control) of malocclusion by the Dental aesthetic Index (DAI). CPQ8-10, CPQ11-14 and P-CPQ were performed in face-to-face interviews and traits were assessed [oral symptoms (OS), Functional limitations (FL), Emotional well-being (EW), social well-being (SW)]. Participants with systemic and/or cognitive changes and orthodontic treatment were excluded. Statistical analysis was performed on SPSS 20.0 Program. The scores CPQ8 – 10, CPQ11 - 14 and P-CPQ were calculated by the additive method. The student t test was performed to compare groups. To analyze the association between the intensity of the ordinal variables, the Spearman correlation test was used. From a total of 328 children, 196 (59.8%) were 8 to 10 years old (mean age, 8.79±0.807 years) and 132 (40.24%) were 11 to 14 years old (mean age, 11.89±1,065 years). The caregivers mean age was 35.22±12.3 years. No statistically significant differences were noted between case and control groups in terms of age, sex, or socioeconomic class (p-value .237, .991, and .608, respectively). Malocclusion impacted the children’ quality of life in the life domain EW (p=0,014). Malocclusion impacted the perception of caregivers related to children’s quality of life on the OS (p=0.049) and FL (p=0.003) domains. There was a positive correlation between the decline in the quality of life of children according to the severity of their malocclusion We concluded that malocclusion impacted both children and the caregivers’ perception related to children’s quality of life. The decline in quality of life was straightly correlated to the severity of malocclusion.