Oral health impact in patients wearing removable prostheses: relations to somatization, pain sensitivity, and body consciousness

• Published in: The International journal of prosthodontics Vol. 18; no. 2; p. 106
• Main Authors: Klages, Ulrich, Esch, Markus, Wehrbein, Heinrich
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.03.2005
• Subjects: Activities of Daily Living; Aged; Attention - physiology; Attitude to Health; Body Image; Cognition; Denture, Complete - psychology; Denture, Partial, Removable - psychology; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Oral Health; Pain - psychology; Personality; Quality of Life; Sensation - physiology; Somatoform Disorders - psychology; Stress, Psychological - psychology
• ISSN: 0893-2174

Previous studies investigating associations between patient personality traits and complaints related to wearing dental prostheses have been inconclusive. From the perspective of cognitive behavioral theory, the current study investigated whether pain sensitivity, body consciousness, and somatization affected the oral health of patients wearing removable dentures. Eighty-eight patients were supplied with removable partial and complete dentures. The Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP), with six subscales measuring oral health impairment and disability during daily living, the Pain Sensitivity Index, the Private Body Consciousness scale, and the Somatization Scale of the SCL-90-R, were used. The variables pain sensitivity, body consciousness, and somatization correlated significantly with all six OHIP subscales in removable denture wearers. In multiple hierarchic regression analyses, patient personality accounted for 38.0% of functional limitation and 41.5% of physical pain. Pain sensitivity and bodily preoccupation might be important factors in explaining the subjective oral health effects of removable denture wearing.