Objectives: To develop and evaluate shortened forms of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) for discriminating dental aesthetics problems and evaluating dental aesthetic outcomes.
Methods: Eighty-seven subjects self-completed the 49-item OHIP at baseline and 63 at follow up (8 weeks later), with the intervention of applying an array of tooth-whitening products. Expert-based approach and regression analysis (on baseline data) were undertaken to derive two subset questionnaires (OHIP-conceptual and OHIP-regression). Their discriminatory ability for dental aesthetics and their responsiveness to tooth whitening were compared with the original OHIP-49, Slade's OHIP-14 and a Chinese short-form version of OHIP.
Results: The measures developed were strongly associated with self-rating of dental aesthetics (P < 0.001) unlike OHIP-49 (P = 0.03) or other OHIP short forms (P > 0.05). The measures were also reliable (Cronbach's alpha 0.86) and comparable with the other OHIP forms. In terms of effect size, OHIP-conceptual was more effective in measuring changes than the one based on the regression analysis, the original OHIP-49, OHIP-14 and the Chinese version of the short-form OHIP. It also exhibited a less susceptibility to floor effects than other OHIP forms.
Conclusion: A modified short form of the OHIP derived (OHIP-conceptual) was the most favorable in discriminating dental aesthetics, was reliable and most sensitive to the dental aesthetics intervention - tooth whitening.