Quality of life among indigenous people using a simplified rehabilitation technique

Abstract

The rehabilitation with dental prostheses of Indigenous people edentulous put in villages has been a challenge for the institutions responsible for Indigenous health care in view of the difficult logistics of displacement of Indigenous people to urban centers. Retrospective observational study. Nineteen edentulous indigenous people were rehabilitated by the simplified technique “Prosthesis in one day”. Before making the prosthesis (t0), the patients were submitted to a clinical examination and interview for the application of the OHIP-14. Prostheses Adjustments prostheses were made when necessary. After one year (t1), a new interview was conducted and in addition to questionnaires to assess the quality of life, one was applied to evaluate the perception of quality, comfort and chewing ability in relation to the prostheses. There was a significant decrease in oral health impact on patients' quality of life in all OHIP-14 domains (median t0 = 33.0; median t1 = 0.0; effect size = 4.69). In general, the scores given by patients for the upper and lower dentures were high after one year of use. There was a positive impact on chewing. The “Prosthesis in 1 day” technique proved to be a good alternative for the rehabilitation of villagers, positively impacting their quality of life.