Orofacial pain conditions and impact on quality of life in community-dwelling elderly people in Hong kong

Aims: To determine orofacial pain (OFP) characteristics, associated disability, and effect on quality of life in elderly community-dwelling Chinese people. Methods: A cross-sectional survey involving elderly people registered with the Family Medicine Unit of the University of Hong Kong served as the sampling frame. Elderly people with recent OFP symptoms and a comparison control group without OFP participated. Standard questions were asked about OFP conditions in the previous month and the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and pain-related disability questions were administered prior to a standard clinical examination. Results: Ninety-five people with OFP and 100 people without OFP participated. The median number of pain symptoms per subject was 2.0. Toothache was the most common symptom (58.9%); shooting pain across the face and muscle tenderness were the least common (6.3%). More than half of the pain participants described moderate to severe OFP. The prevalences of patients with neurological/vascular (NV), musculoligamentous/soft tissue (MST), or dentoalveolar (DA) OFP were 35.8%, 33.7%, and 30.5%, respectively. Chronic OFP was common (80%). The mean OHIP-14 summary score was significantly higher in OFP subjects than controls (P <.001) and significantly higher in the MST and DA subgroups than in the NV subgroup (P <.001). GHQ scores of : 4, indicating greater psychological distress, were more common in OFP subjects than controls (P <.01). Twenty percent of OFP subjects indicated that their conditions interfered with daily life activities, and in 9.9% it affected ability to work. Conclusion: OFP bad a substantial detrimental impact on daily life activities, psychological distress level, and quality of life in Chinese elders. MST and DA conditions bad the greatest adverse impact on quality of life.