Dentition status and treatment needs and its correlation with oral health-related quality of life among men having sex with men and transgenders in Pune city: A cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: Dental diseases are universal in nature. Their presence and severity may vary from one individual to another and is also affected by multiple factors such as gender, knowledge, attitude and the affordability of dental/oral care. Gay, bisexual and transgender community is one among the socially disadvantaged community in our country. The present study was carried out in the city of Pune, India, to evaluate the prevalence of dentition status and the treatment needs among the men who have sex with men (MSMs) and transgenders (TGs) and its correlation with the oral health-related quality of life. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sample size was 270. Convenience sampling was followed. The WHO oral health assessment for 1997 was used to record dentition status and treatment needs. Oral Health Impact Profile-14 was used to record the oral health-related quality of life. SPSS 22.0 (Chicago, IL, USA) was used for statistical analysis. All P < 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference seen across the various domains in the overall impact of the oral quality of life. There was a significant correlation between the decayed teeth, missing teeth and overall decayed, missing and filled teeth scores with respect to the seven domains. Problems arising due to past dental experience (dental caries), lost natural tooth structures replaced with restorative material and a cumulative impact significantly affected the outcome of the oral health-related quality of life of the participants. CONCLUSION: There was an alteration in quality of life of the MSMs and TGS with respect to dental caries. This calls for an intervention that is tailor-made to meet the needs of this group.