Association Between Personality Traits and Oral Health-Related Quality of Life: A Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) among subjects with typical, atypically positive, and atypically negative personality trait scores within the five basic dimensions of personality (neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness). Materials and Methods: A total of 235 subjects not seeking dental treatment were recruited from the families and acquaintances of dental students from the University of Salamanca. The 14-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) was used to capture the impact on their OHRQoL. The Neouroticism-Extroversion-Openness Personality Inventory Revised was applied to assess personality profiles. People were classified as having negatively atypical, typical, or positively atypical (PAP) personality, depending on whether the sum of the Z scores was < 1, between 1 and 1, or > 1, respectively. Pearson correlation, analysis of variance, and logistic regression test were used for the statistical analyses. Results: The sample was comprised of highly educated adults (aged 18-80 years) with good oral health habits. PAP subjects suffered significantly more in the dimension of psychologic discomfort (0.6 +/- 0.7) than did their counterparts (0.3 +/- 0.6), but the global impact in OHRQoL was comparable. Personality was weakly correlated with OHIP-14. The perception of dental treatment needs was found to be the major predictor of the impact on OHRQoL, but the number of negatively atypical deviated personality traits and the agreeableness raw score also had an effect. Conclusion: The risk of perceiving an impact on OHRQoL is significantly higher in individuals perceiving treatment needs and increases proportionally to the number of negatively atypical personality traits.