Assessment of orofacial dysfunctions, salivary cortisol levels and oral health related quality of life (ORHQoL) in young adults.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship of orofacial dysfunction and salivary cortisol levels with oral health quality of life (ORHQoL) in young adults. DESIGN: Thirty individuals of both genders (22.93±2.42 years) participated. The orofacial dysfunction was evaluated using the Nordic Orofacial Test-Screening (NOT-S) and the ORHQoL using the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-49). Saliva samples were collected during three days, at waking up and 30 min after, obtaining the awakening cortisol response - ACR. The data were analysed by Mann-Whitney test, Spearman's correlation and multiple linear regression (α=0.05). The NOT-S scores and ACR (µg/dl) were dichotomized by the median (2.0 and 0.15, respectively). RESULTS: NOT-S and ACR showed similar values between genders (P>0.05). The individuals with NOT-S scores above the median presented values of "physical pain" domain significantly higher than the individuals with scores bellow or equal to the median. Significant correlations were found between the OHIP-49 domains "physical pain" and "physical disability" and NOT-S scores. In multiple linear regression, significant values were observed between NOT-S and OHIP-49 and the domains physical pain, physical disability, psychological disability, social disability and handicap, with determination coefficients ranging from 0.09 to 0.15. There was not association with the ACR. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with orofacial dysfunction presented impairment in ORHQoL, but not enough to change salivary cortisol levels. Furthermore, gender did not have influence on ORHQoL in the studied sample.