Purpose
To assess the prevalence and characteristics of oral impacts attributed to recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) in 12- and 15-year-olds Thais.
Methods
A national oral health survey was conducted. Child-OIDP and OIDP indices were used to collect oral impacts in 1,100 12- and 871 15 year olds.
Results
RAS-related impacts were reported in 24.7% of 12 and 36.2% of 15 year olds. Girls were more likely than boys to report RAS-related impacts. Among all perceived causes of oral impacts, RAS ranked second for 12 and first for 15 year olds. Among 12 and 15 years olds, 79.8 and 86.8% respectively had impacts on eating, 81.0 and 84.4% on cleaning teeth and 51.7 and 60.3% on emotional stability. For individual children, impacts affected between 1–6 daily performances. Impacts were of ‘little’ and ‘moderate’ intensity for 12 and 15 year olds, respectively. RAS-related impacts occurred mostly in combination with impacts from other oral conditions. Combined with other oral conditions, the impacts were worse, in terms of score, intensity and extent, than when RAS occurred alone.
Conclusions
RAS-related impacts were common in 12- and 15-year-old Thai children and mostly affected eating, cleaning teeth and emotional stability. RAS tended to occur with other conditions leading to more severe, more extensive impacts on quality of life.
