Psychometric properties of OHIP-CRO14 and OHIP-SVN14 render these instruments suitable for the assessment of Oral Health Related Quality of Life in Croatia and Slovenia.

A 3-year longitudinal study of quality-of-life outcomes of elderly patients with implant-and tooth-supported fixed partial dentures in posterior dental regions Background: Clinical studies have mainly been focused on oral health-related quality-of-life (OHRQoL) outcomes of removable dentures. Objective: To evaluate therapy of elderly patients with implant-supported fixed partial dentures (IFPD) and tooth-supported fixed partial dentures (FPD) in the posterior dental regions. Patients and methods: The OHIP49 was used to measure OHRQoL in 64 patients with IFPD and 38 patients with FPD, before, 3 weeks and 3 years after rehabilitation. A control group (CG) consisted of 62 individuals. Results: The Oral Health Impact Profile questionnaire (OHIP) follow-up scores of the patients with FPD and the patients with IFPD were significantly smaller in comparison with the baseline scores (p < 0.01). The OHIP scores were further reduced at the 3-year follow-up. The patients with IFPD had significantly higher scores than the patients with FPD and the CG at the baseline and at the follow-ups. In the patients with FPD, both age groups (£60 and >60) showed equal improvement of the OHRQoL. In the IFPD group, patients older than 60 years showed better improvement (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences dependent on gender and antagonistic teeth (p > 0.05). Conclusion: The FPD and the IFPD treatment showed significant improvement of OHRQoL. The FPD treatment improved OHRQoL equally in both age groups, while the IFPD treatment improved OHRQoL better in older patients.Keywords: oral health impact profile questionnaire, oral health-related quality-of-life, elderly patients, implant, prosthodontic.

The aim was to adapt the Orofacial Esthetic Scale (OES) and to test psychometric properties of the Albanian language version in the cultural environment of the Republic of Kosovo.MethodsThe OES questionnaire was translated from the original English version according to the accepted techniques. The reliability (internal consistency), and validity (construct, convergent and discriminative) were tested in 169 subjects, test-retest in 61 dental students (DS), and responsiveness in 51 prosthodontic patients with treatment needs (PPTN).ResultsThe corrected item correlation coefficients of OES-ALB ranged from 0.686 to 0.909. The inter-item correlation coefficient ranged between 0.572 and 0.919. The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.961 and IIC 0.758. Test- retest was confirmed by good ICCs and by no significant differences of the OES scores through the period of 14 days without any orofacial changes (p > 0.05). Construct validity was proved by the presence of one-factor composition that assumed 79.079 % of the variance. Convergent validity showed significant correlation between one general question about satisfaction with orofacial esthetics and the OES summary score, as well as between the sum of the 3 OHIP-ALB49 questions related to orofacial aesthetics and the OES summary score. Discriminative validity was confirmed with statistically significant differences between DS, prosthodontic patients without treatment need and PPTN (p < 0.01). Responsiveness was confirmed by a significant increase of OES scores after PPTN patients received new fixed partial or removable dentures (P < 0.001).ConclusionThe results proved excellent psychometric properties of the OES-ALB questionnaire in the Republic of Kosovo.

Although the patients' satisfaction was similar in both groups the Locator(®) system demonstrated better soft tissues scores because hygienic maintenance was more complicated around bars. This may increase the frequency of chronic inflammations around the implants.

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