A cross-sectional study on the impact of dental pain and its relation to quality of life among patients undergoing orthodontic treatment

Background: Patients experience pain during fixed orthodontic operations such as separator implantation, archwire placement and activations, orthopedic force delivery, and bracket debonding. The purpose of this study was to analyze pain and oral health-related quality of life among orthodontic patients. Materials and method: After gaining ethical approval from the Institutional Review Committee, this descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 157 orthodontic patients at a tertiary care institution from May 2021 to April 2022. The participants were chosen using the convenience sampling approach. The "Oral Health Impact Profile-14" was used to assess oral health-related quality of life and pain experienced during the first month of fixed orthodontic treatment. The IBM SPSS version 22 was used to analyze the data and calculate the frequency and proportion. Results: The study participants' mean pain score was 4.95±2.03, and their mean oral health impact was 12.61±7.37. The majority of the participants in the study (86.6%) had experienced moderate pain as a result of orthodontic treatment. Among the reported effects, 139 (88.5%) reported unpleasant hurting in the mouth, and 130 (82.8%) had trouble eating. Changes in taste had the least impact and were only seen in 21%