Evaluation of the Effect of Periodontal Status and Oral Health Consciousness Level on Oral Health Quality of Life by Using OHIP-14 Scale.
Conditions: Periodontal Diseases
Sponsor: Ondokuz Mayıs University

Study Protocol: 
The protocol of this randomized controlled clinical survey study was approved by the Ethical 
Committee of the Faculty of Dentistry, ondokuz mayıs university, Turkey, and the study was 
conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed written consent was 
obtained from all subjects after the details of the clinical procedures were explained. 
Systematically healthy 750 individuals (subject) aged ≥18 years that referred to the 
Department of Periodontology, Faculty of Dentistry, ondokuz mayıs University between 2015 
and 2017, either for dental treatment or only for dental check-up were included in our study.  
Participants and assessments. 
Prior to dental examination the questionnaire form to detect oral hygiene habits and oral 
hygiene consciousness levels and the OHIP-14 form to evaluate impact of periodontal status 
on quality of life were applied to each participants. The socio-demograhic data was recorded 
for each participant as age, sex, marital status, education level, monthly income. 
Periodontal disease status was determined according to clinical and radiographic criteria. In 
order to determine the periodontal status of the plaque index(PI), gingival index (GI), probing 
pocket depth (PPD) and clinical attachment level (CAL) were recorded. Study participants 
were distributed into three groups as periodontally healthy(H; n=250), gingivitis (G; 
n=250)and chronic periodontitis (CP; n=250). The relationship between periodontal status 
with quality of life and perception of how oral health influences the quality of life as well as 
percieved oral health and oral hygiene consciousness level were evaluted.  
 
Assesment of perceived oral health and oral hygiene consciousness level. 
The oral hygiene habits, frequency of dental visits and the age of first dental visit among the 
groups were recorded. Perceived oral health was measured by askin a question as ‘ How 
do you describe the health of your teeth and gums?’ The patient based explanation of the 
periodontal status and the conciousness level about the application of oral hygiene measures 
were detected by asking ‘What is the dental plaque for you?, What does plaque for you?, 
What is dental caries for you?, What is the dental calculus for you?, What is the symptom of 
bleeding from brushing teeth?, What is the cause of tooth and gum disease?, how do we 

prevent tooth and gum disease?, What is the most important time of brushing?’  in the 
questionnaire form.    
Assessment of OHIP 14 Scale. 
The validity and reliability of OHIP, consisting of 49 questions, was made by Slade and 
Spencer (Slade, 1997). The short form of OHIP was developed due to answering and scoring 
scales can take a long time and the validity and reliability of OHIP-14 is confirmed by Slade 
(Slade, 1997; Nuttall, 2001). The answers are scored according to the Likert scale. Responses 
to the items were recorded on a six-point scale: never=0, seldom=1, sometimes=2, fairly 
often=3, very often=4 and all time=5 (Slade 1997). The high scores revealed the adversely 
affected quality of life (Slade,1997; Başol at al., 2014). The participants were informed on 
how to complete the indexes. Cronbach's alpha value, which indicates the internal consistency 
of the scale, is 0.94. The reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the OHIP-14 scale 
was determined by Mumcu et al. (2006) report.