Patient well-being has become a popular topic for research in recent times. This new trend is helpful for the healthcare industry, considering that patient calmness and positivity increase treatment satisfaction and medical outcomes.
According to a group of Auckland University scientists, a patient's happiness (in a medical context) may be defined as the degree to which individuals positively evaluate the overall quality of their lives. This concept was a terminological basis for a survey of Brazilian scientists, which relieved a correlation between psychological well-being and good oral health.
About the Study
Researchers from the Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil, provided a survey among students of their alma mater – about 2000 individuals (52% are females) participated, most of them 16-24 y.o. The study revealed a few strong associations:
- 95% of students with oral health issues (tooth cavity, gum bleeding, etc.) reported feelings of unhappiness.
- The same percentage of participants who were dissatisfied with their dental appearance or dental color also reported unhappiness.
The survey's discussion
According to the study, the results mentioned above may be strongly related to social impact—bad breath or unsatisfying enamel shade may become a barrier to communication and acceptance in some social groups, especially in young individuals.
Additionally, research authors note that happy people are more likely to tend to healthy lifestyles with a lack of bad habits such as alcohol and smoking, and they are more often engaged in some sport or other physical activities, have enough sleep, etc. All these factors promote predispositions to maintain good oral health.
This topic needs to be researched more widely to produce a more solid statement, but for now, the correlation is obvious – the better your oral health, the more likely you are to have a good well-being.
Also, it's well known that bad oral health, in some cases, may lead to more severe problems such as periodontitis that may cause health issues in other parts of the organism:
