An Assessment of the Quality of Life of Patients With Class III Deformities Treated With Orthognathic Surgery.

Objective: To evaluate quality of life (QoL) from a broad perspective by a comparison of Turkish patients undergoing orthognathic surgery to correct Angle Class III skeletal deformity with a control group composed of participants without dentofacial deformity using general health, generic oral health, and condition-specific QoL approaches.

Methods: Thirty patients who underwent orthognathic surgery to correct Class III relations (monomaxillary and bimaxillary groups) and 30 participants with Class I skeletal structure and good dentofacial harmony (control group) were evaluated. Condition-specific QoL through a 22-item Orthognathic Quality of Life Questionnaire (OQLQ), generic oral health-related QoL through a 14-item Short-Form Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14), and generic health-related QoL through a 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) were assessed.

Results: When the groups were compared, OQLQ scores showed a significant difference in the oral function domain only in the bimaxillary group (P < .05), and OHIP-14 scores showed significant differences in half the OHIP-14 subscale scores in the monomaxillary and bimaxillary groups (P < .05). The SF-36 scores showed significant differences only for the vitality domain in the monomaxillary group and the vitality and mental health domains in the bimaxillary group (P < .05).

Conclusions: For condition-specific and health-related QoL, the QoL of orthognathic surgical patients appeared to be similar to that of participants without dentofacial deformities. Oral health-related QoL of orthognathic surgical patients seemed moderately similar to that of participants without dentofacial deformities. The combined use of these methods is helpful for evaluating QoL from a larger perspective.