Impact of Dental Treatment on the Perception of Children and Parents on Oral Health-Related Quality of Life

Objective: To evaluate the perception and agreement between of child and parent’s reports about oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) of children aged 8-10 who were submitted to dental treatment and whose caregivers were (Group 1) or were not (Group 2) submitted to dental treatment. Material and Methods: Dental caries experience and child (Child Perceptions Questionnaire - CPQ 8-10 ) and parent’s (Parental-Caregiver Perceptions Questionnaire - P-CPQ) perceptions of OHRQoL were before and after the dental treatment. The collected data were analyzed using the BioEstat 5.3 and SPSS 18.0 statistical packages, considering α = 0.05. The Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests, respectively, were used to verify the difference in mean DMFT / dmft indexes and CPQ 8-10 scores before and after treatment in each group. Results: In Group 2, there was a significant increase in mean DMFT after treatment. Both groups presented lower values in the total CPQ 8-10 score after treatment. In pre-treatment, it was observed more positive perception of OHRQoL for parents than for children in both groups. In contrast, in post-treatment, children reported better OHRQoL than parents in both groups. In Group 1, there was significant agreement between children and parents at pre and post-treatment, while in Group 2 significant agreement was observed only at post-treatment. Conclusion: Children presented a more positive perception of OHRQoL at post-treatment, as well as when compared to those parents at this time. There was greater agreement between children and caregivers who accepted to undergo dental treatment.