Objectives: Dental implants have become increasingly popular in the prosthetic rehabilitation of patients with bounded edentulous spaces. Oral condition-related quality of life (QOL) levels have rarely been assessed in these patients.
Material and methods: Two groups of subjects with bounded edentulous spaces were studied: an implant-supported fixed prosthesis group (11 patients) and a resin-bonded fixed prosthesis group (33 patients). The two groups were well matched in terms of sex, age, missing units and location of missing units. The patients were requested to answer a self-administered QOL questionnaire with two major subscales - oral condition- and general condition-related QOL scores. The test-retest reliability of each question was pre-examined and found acceptable (mean Spearman rank correlation coefficient was 0.55 +/- 0.16). Mean QOL score differences between the two groups were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney U-test.
Results: Mean oral condition-related QOL scores of the implant-supported and resin-bonded fixed prosthesis groups were 87.8 +/- 9.5 and 87.1 +/- 12.3% (P = 0.85), and mean general condition-related QOL scores were 73.8 +/- 14.8 and 71.6 +/- 15.2% (P = 0.95), respectively. No significant QOL differences between the two groups were observed in the two subscales.
Conclusion: In patients with bounded edentulous spaces, multidimensional QOL levels of patients with an implant-supported fixed prosthesis do not exceed those of patients with a resin-bonded fixed prosthesis in a short follow-up period.