The association between work schedule, oral health, and oral health-related quality of life

Shift work has become common in today’s society which causes a higher incidence of several systemic disorders. Although the consequences of shift work on general health have been investigated, there is no study investigating the relationship between shift work and oral health. The purpose of this investigation is to compare the oral health condition of shift workers with that of daytime workers to determine whether there is any effect of shift work on oral health and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQOL). In this cross-sectional study, a total of 612 (294 shift workers and 318 daytime workers) individuals who attended to School of Dentistry, Usak University, Usak, Turkey were evaluated between March 2019 and October 2019. Their decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) index and periodontal clinical parameters that include plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), attachment loss (AL), and probing depth (PD) were recorded, and all participants were administered Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using the SPSS software and the statistical significance level was set at 0.05. The mean scores of periodontal clinical parameters, DMFT and OHIP-14 questionnaire, for groups were analyzed by using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) test with adjustment for age, gender, education level, and monthly income. The mean DMFT score of daytime workers was statistically lower than that of shift workers (P < 0.05). The mean PI, GI, PD, and AL of shift workers were meaningfully higher than those of daytime workers (P < 0.05). There was no statistically difference between shift and daytime workers in terms of mean OHIP-14 score (P > 0.05). Although the clinical parameters related to oral health of the shift workers were statistically worse than daytime workers, the mean OHIP-14 score of the shift workers did not show a significant difference from daytime workers.