Oral health-related impact profile of patients treated with fixed, removable, and telescopic dental prostheses in student courses—a prospective bicenter clinical trial

OBJECTIVES: To analyze the oral health-related impact profile in patients treated with three different types of dental prosthesis in student courses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective bicenter clinical trial was conducted with 151 patients being treated with fixed (n = 70), removable (n = 61), or telescopic dental prostheses (n = 20) in clinical student courses of two German universities from October 2018 to October 2019. All patients completed three standardized German versions of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-G49/53) before prosthetic treatment (T0), at control after 1 week (T1), and after 3 months (T2), divided into five dimensions: (a) appearance, (b) oral function, (c) psychosocial impact, (d) linguistic limitations, and (e) orofacial pain. Data were analyzed with Kolmogorov–Smirnov, Wilcoxon signed-rank, Kruskal–Wallis, Mann–Whitney, and Cronbach’s alpha tests. RESULTS: Within T0–T1 and T0–T2, greater improvements were determined for removable compared with fixed dental prostheses for the dimensions’ oral function (p ≤ 0.014), linguistic limitations (p ≤ 0.016), and appearance (p ≤ 0.003). No significant differences were found between fixed and telescopic dental prostheses (p ≥ 0.104) or between removable (partial dental prosthesis with clasps and complete dental prosthesis) and telescopic dental prostheses (p ≥ 0.100). Within T1–T2, a significant improvement in orofacial pain could be determined (p = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: Restorations presented an improvement in oral health-related quality of life. Removable dental prostheses showed better improvement than fixed ones in various dimensions. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Knowledge about the influence of oral health-related quality of life on the three different types of prosthesis used in student courses can be of decisive help in dental consultations.