The relationship between oral conditions, masticatory performance and oral health-related quality of life in children

Objective To evaluate the association between oral conditions, masticatory performance (MP) and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in 8–12 year-old children. Design 150 Brazilian scholars were examined for caries and malocclusions. MP was evaluated based on the ability to comminute an artificial test food followed by the determination of the median particle size (X50) and particle distribution in different-sized sieves (“b”). OHRQoL was measured using the Brazilian versions 8–10 and 11–14 of the child perceptions questionnaire (CPQ), considering the following domains: oral symptoms (OS), functional limitations (FL), emotional well-being (EW) and social well-being (SW). Higher scores indicated worse OHRQoL. Data were submitted to Spearman's correlation test and multiple linear regression analysis. Results There were significant positive correlations between the psychosocial and OS domains scores of the CPQ8–10 and the number of decayed and missing teeth, respectively. The number of decayed teeth positively correlated with the number of missing teeth and the CPQ11–14 scores. The number of decayed and missing teeth was significantly associated with higher CPQ8–10 scores. Higher CPQ11–14 overall scores were associated with female gender, higher FL domain scores were associated with the number of missing teeth, and higher X50 values and EW domain scores were associated with female gender and the number of decayed teeth. Conclusions A higher number of missing teeth correlated with an inferior MP in older children. Children with a higher number of caries rated their oral health less favourably. Older females and those who broke the test material into smaller sizes were also more likely to report a worse OHRQoL, suggesting that the time allowed to reduce food appears to be a more influential factor on children’ perception of oral health than their ability to break down the test material into smaller sizes. Moreover, the subjectivity of functional domain and artificial nature of chewable test material could have influenced the test sensitivity.