Qualidade de vida relacionada à saúde bucal em crianças de baixa idade: uma revisão da literatura

Abstract

Being aware of the impact of changes in oral health on the quality of life of young children and their families makes it possible to determine public measures focused on oral health, define priorities and use the available resources aimed at improving the population's living conditions properly. In addition, the awareness of the conditions that influence Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) in children provides necessary information to improve the quality of care, as well as allowing an assessment of the effectiveness of treatment protocols from the perspective and expectation of the patient and their family. The objective of this study was therefore to assess in the available literature the impact of young children’s oral health condition (less than 47 months of age) on their quality of life as well as their families. A bibliographic research was carried out in the PubMed/MEDLINE, SciELO and BBO databases between the months of May 2019 and September 2020. Research studies, published in the last 10 years, with children under the age of 47 months (3 years and 11 months) have been included. Among the most prevalent oral health conditions in children, which can be associated with changes in quality of life, are dental cavities, toothache, dental trauma, malocclusions and dental eruption symptoms. Still, some studies draw to the fact that the influence of dental treatment and socioeconomic factors on the OHRQoL of these patients are present. According to the reviewed studies, it was concluded that tooth decay, especially in more severe and advanced stages, along with toothache and complicated traumatic dental injuries are associated with negative impacts on OHRQoL. In contrast, dental treatment was associated with a significant improvement in the OHRQoL of these children and their families. The evaluated literature, despite the controversial scarcity of evidence, also suggests that the presence of symptoms of eruption and malocclusion is related to a poorer quality of life in young children, requiring further studies to obtain a more substantial evidence.