Assessment of quality of life in a retrospective study of total oral rehabilitation of the upper jaw with transzygomatic fixation - Case series

Purpose: Zygomatic implants are becoming more common in oral rehabilitationof atrophic maxilla. Successful surgery and rehabilitation are mandatory for theachievement of a well-defined criteria of Quality of Life. However, there is a paucityof studies reporting on the Health-Related Quality of Life in patients undergoing oralrehabilitation.This article aims to developing a specific questionnaire for this particular surgicaland rehabilitation procedure that could be an objective quality outcome measureof Quality of Life. This should improve our understanding of the impact of zygomaticimplant placement on Quality of Life.Materials and Methods: The study was performed involving the Eastman DentalInstitute - University College of London, the Faculty of Sciences - University ofLisbon, and two private practices in Portugal, C.E.R.O-Lisboa and Clitrofa. This was aretrospective study, evolving 30 patients undergoing transzygomatic surgery.A modification of the University of Washington – Quality of Life Questionnaire wasdesigned for this work. The evaluation was made in three-time points: TP1 – Beforesurgery, TP2 - After surgery and TP3 - After final rehabilitation.Results: The means of the increased Quality of Life between the different time-pointswere found to be statistically significance at the level of 0.05, with a confidence intervalof 95%.Conclusion: With this Questionnaire, important data was collected which should allowtreatment developments to optimise patients Quality of Life.