The impact of oro‐facial pain conditions on oral health‐related quality of life: A systematic review

Pain in the oro-facial region is one of the most common reasons for patients to seek dental treatment. Oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) can be affected not only by pain, but also by other oral disorders. Four main dimensions, Oral Function, Orofacial Pain, Orofacial Appearance and Psychosocial Impact, have been suggested to cover different areas of OHRQoL. The aim of this systematic review was to map the impact of oro-facial pain conditions on the Orofacial Pain dimension of OHRQoL (PROSPERO registration: CRD42017064033). Studies were included if they reported Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) mean or median domain scores for patients with odontogenic pain, oral mucosal pain/burning mouth syndrome (BMS), third molar extractions or temporomandibular disorders (TMD). A search in PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, Cochrane, CINAHL and PsycINFO on 8 June 2017, updated 14 January 2019, combined with a hand search identified 2104 articles. After screening of abstracts, 1607 articles were reviewed in full text and 36 articles were included that reported OHIP data for 44 patient populations including 5849 patients. Typical Orofacial Pain impact for all four conditions (odontogenic pain, oral mucosal pain/BMS, pain after third molar extractions and TMD) was between 2 and 3 on a 0-8 converted OHIP scale with the highest reported impact for pain after 3rd molar extractions. This review provides standardised information about OHRQoL impact from four oro-facial pain conditions as a model for the Orofacial Pain dimension. The results show moderate impact for the pain dimension of OHRQoL in patients with common oro-facial pain conditions.