IMPACTO DO ATENDIMENTO ODONTOLÓGICO DE URGÊNCIA NA QUALIDADE DE VIDA

Abstract

Dental urgency encompasses immediate and routine measures within the practice of a dental surgeon's activity in a basic health unit, ranging from the relief of painful, infectious symptoms, fractures, trauma and parafunctional habits to aesthetic procedures of the oral cavity. These changes can determine a decrease in personal self-confidence, with negative repercussions on social relationships. The objective of the study was to evaluate whether performing emergency dental care is capable of promoting an improvement in the quality of life of patients treated at the primary care service of the Family Health Strategies in the municipality of Alfredo Chaves, in the state of Espírito Santo. At first, it was a cross-sectional analytical observational design. Then, around ten to thirty days after emergency dental care, the impact of this care on the quality of life of patients participating in the research was also analyzed. This second stage consisted of a quantitative, longitudinal study, under “before and after” observation. A total of 301 individuals were evaluated with standardized application of scripts for data collection, including an oral health and sociodemographic questionnaire and the OHIP-14 in its simplified form. Descriptive analysis of the data was performed using frequency tables with number and percentage for each of the items of the research instrument. The association between variables was verified by Fisher's exact test; to assess the strength of the association between the variables, the odds ratio (OR) was calculated; and, to analyze the effect of the combined dimensions of the OHIP-14 instrument, the Mantel-Haenszel test was used. The comparison of the impact in the second moment in relation to the first data collection was performed using Wilcoxon's non-parametric test. The results showed that fractured restorations correspond to 34.5% of prevalence for seeking emergency services, followed by caries, which was 30.6%. Most reported that they had not had dental treatment for over a year (48.5%). Most respondents reported preferentially using the public health network (96.4%) and described easy access to the emergency service (97.7%). A predominance of impact on quality of life was observed for individuals: with greater perception of pain, perception of bad breath, perception of bad taste in the mouth and residents of the urban area.