RELATION BETWEEN CLINICAL DENTAL STATUS AND SUBJECTIVE IMPACTS ON DAILY LIVING

Although clinical dental status has weak correlations with subjective impacts, some of them are significant. Those variables which had signi ficant correlations could be used as a starting point to understand cl inical and social characteristics of people who experience dental prob lems. This is indeed the basis for the current research. The study com pares psychosocial impacts on the quality of people's life with their respective oral status. To that end, a socio-dental indicator, the 'De ntal Impact of Daily Living' (DIDL), involving five dimensions, togeth er with a scale which assesses dimension impacts, was developed. The r esulting instrument was validated and the reliability tested. The inst rument generates a total final score, in addition to scores for each d imension. The method was tested in Brazil on a sample of 662 people, a ged from 35 to 44 years, of two social classes, both sexes, and with t hree different levels of dental caries status or with a full upper den ture. To test whether DIDL discriminated between groups with different levels of subjective impact, we analyzed how oral status, social clas s, and gender varied according to impacts. Different levels of oral st atus had different impacts on people's dairy life. On the basis of the results, it is reasonable to suggest that oral status and social and psychological dimensions should be considered simultaneously when in a ssessment of people's dental needs.