Does sense of coherence influence the outcome of implant therapy?

The way that individuals view their lives, their comprehensibility and their ability to manage and cope with life stressors or, in other words, their sense of coherence (SOC), may influence their quality of life. Thus, SOC may be a covariate in the effect of prosthetic treatment on quality of life.

Objectives: 1. To investigate the association between SOC and oral health quality of life (OHRQoL) 2. To determine whether SOC predicts implant therapy outcome in an elder edentulous population.

Methods: In a randomized cross sectional study, data were collected at a one-year follow-up from 173 edentulous elders (mean age 72.13±4.39) who had randomly received mandibular implant overdentures or conventional dentures, both opposed by new conventional maxillary dentures. The outcome variable, oral health related quality of life, was measured with the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP). Independent variables included SOC, prosthesis type, as well as socio-demographic and socio-economic variables. SOC was evaluated using the 13-item, Likert scale, short version of ‘The Orientation to Life' questionnaire with two anchoring responses, “never or very often”. OHIP and SOC data were analysed in both categorical and continuous formats. Correlation and bivariate analyses were used to measure the association between OHRQoL and SOC. Regression models were applied to measure the extent to which the explanatory variables predict OHRQoL.

Results: No significant correlation between SOC and OHRQoL was detected (r= -0.037; p> 0.05). The multivariate regression model demonstrated that SOC does not predict OHRQoL. Type of prosthesis, age and gender were all significant predictors of oral health quality of life in this population.

Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that, in edentulous elders, sense of coherence may not have a significant impact on OHRQoL and may not be a predictor of treatment effect.