Parental perceptions of impact of oral disorders on Colombian schoolchildren's oral healthrelated quality of life.

There is no study assessing the impact of dental caries (DC), dental fluorosis (DF) and traumatic dental injuries (TDI) on oral healthrelated quality of life (OHRQoL) in school children from Colombia. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of DC, DF and TDI on Colombian schoolchildren´s OHRQoL using their parents as proxies. The parents of 338 children aged 6 to 14 years from public and private schools of Cartagena, Colombia answered the ParentalCaregiver Perception Questionnaire (PCPQ) on child's OHRQoL adapted to Colombian Spanish language and a socioeconomic questionnaire. Three calibrated examiners performed the clinical assessment for DC, DF and TDI. Poisson regression associated clinical and socioeconomic conditions to the outcome. Overall, 90.24% of parents reported children's oral impact (total PCPQ score ≥ 1). The mean (standard deviation) PCPQ scores were 12.49 (14.04). The multivariate adjusted model showed that children from public schools and who have dental caries experience (RR= 1.28; p=0.04 and RR= 1.37; p= 0.018, respectively) were more likely to experience negative impact on total PCPQ scores. DC was found to be associated to parentalcaregiver perception of impact on their children's oral healthrelated quality of life, but DF and TDI were not. Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Odontológica.