What is the impact of acute and chronic orofacial pain on quality of life?

OBJECTIVES: Orofacial pain (OFP) is thought to substantially reduce oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). Little has been reported about the impact of acute dental pain and persistent (chronic) orofacial pain conditions, other than temporomandibular disorders (TMD), on OHRQoL. The aim of this study was to examine and compare OHRQoL impairment among four OFP conditions: TMD, acute dental pain (ADP), trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and persistent dentoalveolar pain disorder (PDAP).

METHODS: OHRQoL was measured using the OHIP-49 in a convenience sample of subjects with four OFP conditions (TMD (n=41), ADP (n=41), TN (n=21), PDAP (n=22) and a pain-free control group (n=21)). The mean OHIP-49 summary score described the level of impact and inferential and descriptive statistics were used to examine any differences inter-condition. The mean of the OHIP-14 and 5 were also measured by extracting the corresponding items from the OHIP-49.

RESULTS: All pain conditions presented with statistically significant (P<0.001) and clinically relevant (measured by effect sizes and the OHIP's minimal important difference) impairment when compared to the control group (P<0.001). The OHRQoL for the four OFP conditions had similar levels of impairment (TMD=62.3, ADP=55.5, TN=58.1 and PDAP=69.8).

CONCLUSION: TMD, ADP, TN and PDAP have substantial impact on OHRQoL as measured by the OHIP-49 and the extracted items for the OHIP-14 and 5. Differences among the four groups of orofacial pain conditions are likely not to be substantial.