Assessing change in quality of life using the Oral Health Impact Profile in patients undergoing orthognathic surgery: A before and after comparison with a minimal follow-up of two years

Purpose: Here we evaluated how orthognathic surgery impacted oral health-related quality of life among patients with dentofacial deformities in the immediate postoperative period and during ≥2 years of follow-up, using the OHIP-14-NL questionnaire. Methods: This prospective study included 86 patients. Quality of life was assessed using the Dutch version of the Oral Health Impact Profile questionnaire (OHIP-14-NL) preoperatively (T0, baseline), over 7 days postoperatively (T1–T7), and at 4 weeks (T8), 6 months (T9), 1 year (T10), and ≥2 years (T11) postoperatively. Total OHIP score was determined for each patient. Lower OHIP scores indicated higher oral health-related quality of life. Patients also answered questions regarding self-care, discomfort, and experienced pain at all time-points, starting from T1. Results: Compared to baseline (T0), median OHIP scores were significantly higher from T1 to T8. However, at T9 to T11, OHIP scores were significantly lower compared to baseline (T0) (p < 0.01). OHIP scores were not correlated with gender, age, or blood loss; and did not significantly differ according to surgery type or surgery indication (p > 0.01). Pain scores were positively correlated with OHIP scores for all time-points, except T6 and T10. Pain was not correlated with sex, age, blood loss, surgery duration, surgery indication, or surgery type. Compared to at T1, pain was significantly decreased at T9–T11. Conclusion: Among patients who underwent orthognathic surgery, oral health-related quality of life was decreased in the immediate postoperative period, but improved at ≥6 months postoperatively. The improvement was significant 2 years after orthognathic surgery.