Periodontal health and patient‐reported outcomes: A longitudinal analysis of data from non‐specialist practice settings

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Abstract
Aim: To explore the associations between periodontal health and patient-reported outcomes (PROs), accounting for changes over time, in a large, non-specialist dental practice patient cohort.Materials and Methods: This longitudinal study used data from 13,162 dentate patients, collected by 162 dentists at routine appointments between May 2013 and April 2020, in 238 non-specialist dental practices across the United Kingdom. Dentists collected data, as part of routine clinical care, on periodontal probing pocket depths, alveolar bone loss, bleeding on probing, as well as a range of covariates. Patients inputted data on outcomes (oral pain/discomfort, dietary restrictions, and dental appearance). Mixed-effects logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the associations between periodontal health and PROs. Models accounted for clustering at the patient and dentist level and were adjusted for time and variables which were thought to confound these associations.Results: The odds of all PROs tended to increase with worsening periodontal parameters. For example, the odds of reporting pain in the worst periodontal health category were 1.99 (95% confidence interval: 1.57-2.53) times higher than in the best periodontal health category.Conclusions: This study confirms, using a large longitudinal dataset from a unique non-specialist setting, the associations between poorer periodontal health and poorer PROs.

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