Oral Health-Related Quality of Life of Children and Adolescents with Hemophilia

Background: The problems arising from the teeth and the surrounding tissues in patients with hemophilia have an important role in the treatment planning of bleeding disorder. The aim of this study is to evaluate the oral health related quality of life of children and adolescents with hemophilia. Methods: POQL (pediatric oral health related quality of life) Instrument was used in this cross sectional study for quality of life measurement. The instrument was applied to children and adolescents with (n=64) or without (n=196) hemophilia. The data collected were consist of demographic data, POQL and screening part. SPSS 23.0 was used to analyze the data. Results: DMFT and decay (D) scores of patients with hemophilia were higher than the control group: mean values of hemophilia group are 7 and 4.1 vs. control group 4.7 and 2.3 are respectively (p=0.0001 and p=0.011). Among 8-14 age group and teen age group oral health related quality of life scores were significantly higher among hemophilia group, scores were 34.0 and 17.4 in 8-14 group (p=0.0001) and 37.1 and 26.0 in teen group (p=0.043), respectively. Conclusions: DMFT scores and POQL scores have shown that oral health related quality of life of children with hemophilia is worse than healthy controls.