Impact of oral potentially malignant disorders on quality of life.

BACKGROUND: Oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) could have a significant psychological impact on patients, principally because of the unknown risk of malignant transformation, while the physical and functional impairments could differ. This study aimed to assess the impact of three different OPMDs and their disease stages on the quality of life (QoL) of affected patients.

METHODS: Oral leukoplakia (OL), oral lichen planus (OLP) and oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) patients who were undergoing treatment at an oral medicine clinic of a dental teaching hospital in India were the study population. All subjects completed the recently developed OPMDQoL questionnaire and a short form 12 item (version 2) health survey questionnaire (SF-12v2). OPMDQoL questionnaire consists of 20 items over four dimensions. A higher score denotes poor OHRQoL. SF-12v2 has two components, a Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS).

RESULTS: A total of 150 subjects (50 each of OL, OLP and OSF) participated. OL patients (37.7 ± 7.9) reported significantly better OPMDQoL scores than OLP (47.3 ± 5.8) and OSF (45.4 ± 9.2) patients. OLP patients reported significant problems in obtaining a clear diagnosis for their condition, more so than the other OPMDs. OL patients reported fewer problems for the dimension, "physical impairment and functional limitations" than the OLP and OSF patients. A significant trend was observed with the overall OPMDQoL and MCS, deteriorating as the disease stage increased.

CONCLUSIONS: OLP and OSF have a significant impact on the QoL of affected individuals: OL less so. Increasing stage of the disease is associated with worsening QoL.