Measuring the effect of intra-oral implant rehabilitation on health-related quality of life in a randomized controlled clinical trial

The importance of assessing the impact of treatments for chronic conditions on an individual's quality of life has been well-established. In this rand omized clinical trial, oral-health-related quality of life, measured with t he Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP), was compared between two groups of ed entulous patients. One group (n = 54) received mandibular implant-supported overdentures, and the other group (n = 48) received conventional dentures. Assessments were performed pre-treatment and two months after the prosthes es were delivered. The multivariate model showed that implant treatment was significantly associated with lower post-treatment OHIP scores (p = 0.0002 ), indicating a better quality of life. In addition, pre treatment OHIP sco res, treatment allocation, age, sex, and marital status explained 31% of th e variation in post-treatment OHIP scores (F = 0.0001). These results sugge st that implant treatment provides significant short-term improvement over conventional treatment in oral-health-related quality of life.