Oral impact on daily performance: need and use of dental prostheses among Brazilian adults.

Although there is a large amount of evidence that demonstrates the relationship between oral health status and oral impact daily performance, there are few studies that have evaluated the impact of prosthetic status, particularly the need for a dental prosthesis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between need and use of dental prostheses and the prevalence of oral impact on daily performance. A sample of 720 subjects, aged between 50 and 74 years, was evaluated using a cross-sectional study. Participants were selected through a multistage proportional random sampling. The impact of oral health status on daily performance (oral impact on daily performance--OIDP) and socio-demographic data was assessed using a standardised questionnaire, and clinical data were assessed by oral examination. The outcome was the prevalence of impact. The association between the explanatory variables and the outcome was analysed through two models of multivariate Poisson regression. In the adjusted model, the variables need of upper and lower prosthesis and use of lower prosthesis maintained a statistically significant association. No statistically relevant relation between socio-demographic variables and outcomes was found. Findings show that the need and use and of a prosthesis are related to oral health quality of life.