The Effect of Trigeminal Neurosensory Deficit on Quality of Life

Dental treatments may cause damages on sensory nerves of the jaws which are branches of the trigeminal nerve. Patient’s quality of life can be affected by nerve injuries that may cause pain. There are a number of surveys to assess quality of life in dental procedures. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of temporary or persistent neurosensory disturbance of the lingual nerve (LN) or inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) on quality of life. Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) was used to determine the effects of temporary or persistent neurosensory disturbance of LN or IAN on quality of life.

The study design was a case-control study. The patients divided into two groups, each containing 50% of the patients; (n=100 per group). The patients with the neurosensory deficit of the LN and/or the IAN, developed as a consequence of dental or oral and maxillofacial surgery procedures that confirmed by subjective and objective neurosensory tests formed the Study Group. The patients who had dental or oral and maxillofacial surgery procedures in the same unit and did not present with neurosensory deficit were matched with the Study Group according to their gender and age. They were presented as the Control Group in the study. All patients filled in a Turkish language translated version of the 14-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP- 14). Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) was assessed using OHIP-14 across seven topics (two questions per topic) by asking patients to rate the frequency of occurrence of a particular problem. In this questionnaire the topics are: functional limitation, physical pain, psychological discomfort, physical disability, psychological disability, social disability, and handicap. . The higher the total score is the higher level of negative impact on OHRQoL is. The results were evaluated with SPSS 21.0 software package. Statistical analyses were performed by use of single sample Kolmogrov-Smirnov test for normality and the Levene test for homogeneity and the differences of the groups were evaluated with Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests.

This study included 200 patients (122 female, 78 male), aged between 18 and 75, with a mean of 37 years. The OHIP-14 scores were higher in this patients with neurosensory deficits compared with the control group. There were significantly differences between study and control groups in functional limitation (p=0,001), psychological discomfort (p=0,000), psychological disability (p=0,000), and handicap (p=0,000) subgroups.

It was concluded that the patients with the neurosensory deficit of the LN and/or the IAN have poorer OHRQoL than those without neurosensory deficits.  

1- Slade GD. Derivation and validation of a short-form oral health impact profile. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 1997:25, 284-290.

2- Lam NP, Donoff RB, Kaban LB, Dodson TB. Patient satisfaction after trigeminal nerve repair. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. 2003 May;95(5):538-43.