Author(s): Oyapero A, Adeniyi AA, Sofola O, Ogbera AO
Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by hyperglycaemia. In the oral cavity, diabetes mellitus may lead to salivary dysfunction, increased susceptibility of oral tissues to trauma and periodontal disease. There is a possibility that oral health education and oral prophylaxis may have a positive impact on the OHRQOL of diabetic patients. The purpose of this study therefore, was to evaluate the impact of Oral Health Education and oral prophylaxis on the OHRQOL of diabetic patients at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja (LASUTH) using the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14).
The study subjects had an interviewer-administered questionnaire employed to obtain information on their biodata, baseline OHIP-14 scores and periodontal/glycaemic parameters. They then received oral prophylaxis and oral health education and were reviewed at one, three and six months respectively. After 6 months, the periodontal and glycaemic parameters of the subjects were recorded again and the OHIP-14 form was used to evaluate the impact of the interventions on their OHRQOL. At baseline, subjects reported moderate and high impacts on their quality of life in the sub-domains of discomfort, pain, self-consciousness and embarrassment. The prevalence of moderate and severe periodontitis in this study population was 37.5%.
At the 6 months review, there was a significant reduction in the Fasting Blood Sugar and 2 hours Post Prandial glucose of the subject was compared to baseline scores. There was also a significant mean reduction in the periodontal parameters and an improvement in the OHRQOL of the subjects. The greatest improvement in OHRQOL was in the subdomain of discomfort, pain, self-consciousness and embarrassment. This study demonstrated that oral prophylaxis and oral health education may result in an improvement in the OHRQOL of the diabetic subjects. Further studies using a randomized controlled trial design are however recommended to validate these findings.
