Psychological impact on implant patients' oral health-related quality of life

OBJECTIVES: The literature has shown that patients' satisfaction with dental prostheses is associated with the existence of certain personality profiles. It is important to study such relationships in dental implant patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifty patients (28 men and 22 women), aged between 22 and 71 years (mean age 43.22 years, SD 12.24 years), who were partially edentulous and were seeking dental implant therapy were entered into this study. The patients were requested to answer two reliable and valid questionnaires--the Dental Impact on Daily Living (DIDL) and the Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI)--before implant treatment and 2-3 months after prosthodontic rehabilitation therapy. RESULTS: Certain personality traits were found to have a significant relationship with patients' satisfaction with dental implants both before and after implant therapy (P < 0.05). Neuroticism score had valuable features in predicting patients' total satisfaction ratings (P = 0), satisfaction with appearance dimension (P = 0), satisfaction with oral comfort dimension (P = 0.005) as well as satisfaction with general performance dimension (P = 0). CONCLUSION: Personality traits have an impact on patients' satisfaction with dental implant therapy. In addition, personality traits provide valuable information for the prediction of patients' satisfaction with their implant-supported prostheses. Neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and consciousness are very helpful in this regard. Neuroticism was found the main predictor of the patients' oral health-related quality of life following implant treatment.