[The purpose of the study is to investigate the quality of life of young adults in relation to oral health and how smoking affects this. The aim is to explore the differences in oral health-related quality of life between smokers, non-smokers, and quitters in a given age group.
The survey was conducted using a self-designed online questionnaire that included the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) questionnaire. The survey was conducted from May 01 to June 30, 2023, using a nonrandom sampling method that relied on easily accessible subjects. Data were processed and analysed using IBM SPSS 20.0 statistical software, descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman’s rank correlation analysis (p<0.05).
Based on the 317 assessable responses, smokers had a higher average OHIP-14 total score than non-smokers and quitters, but there were no significant differences in oral health-related quality of life between the groups (p=0.540). Four self-reported questions were added to the OHIP-14 questionnaire: dissatisfied with the colour of their teeth; afraid of communicating with others without seeing their teeth being seen; afraid of having a serious oral problem; afraid of losing their teeth. These issues are highly correlated with the OHIP-14 questionnaire and fear of oral lesions appears to be present among smokers.
Young adults do not yet show a significant deterioration in oral quality of life due to smoking, but additional questions are worth considering to assess the quality of life in smokers.]