Commonalities among dental patient-reported outcomes (dPROs)—A Delphi consensus study

Abstract

Improvement of patients’ oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) is the main goal of oral health care professionals. However, OHRQoL is not a homogenous construct and how to assess it is challenging because of the large number of currently available instruments. Investigating available instruments and what they have in common would be necessary for consolidation and standardization of these instruments into a smaller set of tools. If the OHRQoL dimensions including Oral Function, Orofacial Pain, Orofacial Appearance, and Psychosocial Impact are the fundamental building blocks of the dental patient’s oral health experience, then these dimensions should be measured by generic multi-item dPROMs. In this study, a panel of 11 international dentists use the Delphi consensus process to determine how well 20 of these instruments measured the four OHRQoL dimensions. All 20 dPROMs questionnaires assessed at least one OHRQoL dimension while all four OHRQoL dimensions were measured by at least one dPROM instrument, i.e., the four OHRQoL dimensions were essential components of the patient’s oral health experience. This shows that the currently available generic multi-item dPROMs have a lot in common, in that they share Oral Function, Orofacial Pain, Orofacial Appearance, and Psychosocial Impact as targeted dimensions. Based on these commonalities, it is plausible and desirable to move towards a single four-dimensional metric to assess oral health impact in all clinical, community-based, and research settings. This step is necessary to advance evidence-based dentistry and value-based oral health care.

Diagnostic criteria for temporomandibular disorders—INfORM recommendations: Comprehensive and short‐form adaptations for children

“…In this first version of the DC/TMD for children, there is a need for field testing, for determining the diagnostic accuracy and for validating many of the instruments in the 6‐ to 9‐year age group. Because the suggested instruments are in the English language, there is also a need for translation to different languages according to the forward–backward‐translation recommendations of INfORM 86,87 …”

“…Because the suggested instruments are in the English language, there is also a need for translation to different languages according to the forward-backward-translation recommendations of INfORM. 86,87 Future direction and implementation of the DC/TMD will also provide an opportunity to investigate patient-reported outcomes (PRO), to focus more on the subjective experience of pain or dysfunction and on how much this will affect children's OHRQoL. 86,87…”

“…86,87 Future direction and implementation of the DC/TMD will also provide an opportunity to investigate patient-reported outcomes (PRO), to focus more on the subjective experience of pain or dysfunction and on how much this will affect children's OHRQoL. 86,87…”