Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of clinical forms in a group of oral lichen planus (OLP) patients and to investigate whether the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) of patients with common clinical OLP forms differs significantly from that of other clinical forms of OLP and healthy patients, respectively.
Methods: OHRQoL was assessed using the Romanian version of the short form of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14). OLP patients rated the pain they were currently experiencing on a visual analog scale (VAS). Statistics was performed using parametric and non-parametric tests and multiple linear regression.
Results: Eighty OLP patients and 80 healthy controls were enrolled. The most prevalent OLP clinical form was keratotic form (n = 39, 48.75%, group 1), followed by atrophic (31.25%), erosive-ulcerative (17.5%), and bullous (2.5%) forms, which were included in group 2 (n = 41). The OHRQoL did not differ significantly between group 1 and the other two groups. A negative social impact was reported on psychological discomfort domain for both OLP groups, as compared with healthy controls. VAS scores were significantly associated with OHIP total scores in group 1 (rho = 0.41, n = 39, p = 0.009, Spearman's correlation coefficient). Within the same group, significantly higher OHIP total scores were recorded in patients lacking academic education (p = 0.0086, Mann-Whitney U test).
Conclusions: Overall, the most common clinical OLP form did not impact significantly the OHRQoL of OLP patients.
Clinical relevance: Psychological therapy and meeting the educational needs might improve the OHRQoL of patients with common clinical forms of OLP.
Keywords: Cross-sectional; Oral health; Oral lichen planus; Pain perception; Quality of life.