LAUSR

gum has receded or if your teeth have worn down? Do you have sensitive teeth that affect the way you eat? As dental practitioners, we might find it easy to answer these questions, but have you thought about how your patients would answer them? A recent study conducted in South West England asked these questions to a group of NHS patients to gauge their awareness of their periodontal health, toothwear and dental hypersensitivity and to understand how these conditions impacted their oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). A total of 814 adult patients in 28 NHS dental practices took part by completing an oral health questionnaire before being examined clinically for gingival bleeding, gingival recession, periodontal pockets, toothwear and dentine hypersensitivity. While the result showed that most participants were regular attenders with good oral hygiene routines, it also revealed slight discrepancies between their perceived oral health and their clinical presentations. For example, only about one third reported experiencing gingival bleeding when, in reality, three quarters of them had demonstrated some evidence of gingival bleeding when examined clinically. Tooth wear was also significantly under-reported, with some unsure if they had any sign of it. On the other hand, gingival recession was mostly over-reported by the participants. Nonetheless, the self-reported data and the clinical indices displayed significant positive associations in all of the conditions measured, which indicated that patients were mainly aware of their oral health conditions. This finding highlighted the need for patients to be further educated on some oral health conditions, especially tooth wear as it was found to be the least known among patients. This was likely the case because tooth wear did not cause any obvious problems to the patients in the early stages, as compared to the other conditions. All of the conditions were proven to have direct negative impact on the patients, with poor periodontal health and dentine hypersensitivity largely attributed to a lower OHRQoL. It was, therefore, unsurprising that they were the conditions that patients were most aware of. Despite having awareness on good oral hygiene, some conditions were still underreported by this group of NHS patients. It emphasises the importance of our role to educate patients on their oral health conditions, including toothwear, as its cumulative effects could lead to the occurrence of dentine hypersensitivity. By Othman Zuhir Gummy affair: perception and reality