Oral health-related quality of life of patients with oral lichen planus, oral leukoplakia, or oral squamous cell carcinoma.

PURPOSE: To compare oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) of patients with oral lichen planus (OLP), oral leukoplakia (OL), or oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy-three patients with OLP, 44 with OL, and 37 with OSCC participated in this prospective study. The German version of the 14-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-G 14) was used to measure OHRQoL. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of clinical forms, age, gender, alcohol consumption, and smoking habits were evaluated. RESULTS: No association to cumulative OHIP-14 score (P = .086) among the 3 groups was found. However, patients with OLP showed a higher "physical pain" score and a lower "social disability" score (P = .026) than patients with OSCC, followed by patients with OL. Women with OLP had a lower OHRQoL than men. After differentiation of clinical forms of OLP (symptomatic vs asymptomatic), an impact on these patients' OHRQoL in the dimensions "physical pain" and "physical disability" was found. CONCLUSION: Patients with OLP or OSCC and high OHIP-G 14 scores reported physical pain, which emphasizes the need for physical therapy. For improved OHRQoL, patients with symptomatic forms of OLP would gain more from a treatment compared with those with asymptomatic forms. In contrast, patients with asymptomatic OLP or OL and thus with a minimal impact on their OHRQoL might be at risk of delayed consultation, diagnosis, and treatment of their condition.