Leao and Sheiham developed the Dental Impact of Daily Living (DIDL) to describe a person's quality of life and satisfaction relative to his or her oral status. This can used during an initial assessment or after a therapeutic intervention. The authors are from the University of College London and the University of Campinas in Brazil.
Parameters (dimensions) with 36 items:
(1) appearance (4)
(2) pain (4)
(3) comfort (7)
(4) general performance (15)
(5) eating restrictions or disability (6)
Appearance:
(1) satisfaction with teeth
(2) satisfaction with appearance of teeth
(3) satisfaction with color of teeth
(4) satisfaction with position of teeth
Pain:
(1) spontaneous pain
(2) pain when eating, hot or cold
(3) changing food because of pain
(4) temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain
Comfort:
(1) worry with teeth, partial prosthesis or full dentures
(2) food packing
(3) halitosis
(4) loose teeth
(5) satisfaction with gums
(6) bleeding gums
(7) sensitivity to hot or cold because of gingival recession
General Performance:
(1) work capacity affected by appearance of teeth
(2) work capacity affected by eating, talking
(3) contact with people affected by appearance of teeth
(4) contact with people affected by eating, talking
(5) contact with people affected by pain
(6) romance affected by pain
(7) romance affected by eating, talking
(8) self-confidence affected by teeth
(9) embarrassment caused by teeth
(10) romance affected by appearance of teeth
(11) avoid showing teeth when smiling
(12) satisfaction with smile
(13) work capacity affected by pain
(14) stress because of pain
(15) bad sleep because of pain
Eating restrictions:
(1) capacity to chew
(2) satisfaction with chewing
(3) capacity to bite
(4) satisfaction with biting
(5) changing way of preparing food
(6) changing types of food because of teeth
|
Impact |
Points |
|
negative |
-1 |
|
neutral |
0 |
|
positive |
+1 |
subscore for each dimension =
= SUM(points for all items in dimension) / (number of items in dimension)
Each dimension is assigned a personal weight by the patient in the range from 0 to 10, reflecting the importance of that dimension to the patient.
overall weighting points =
= SUM(weighting points for all 5 parameters)
individual weighting factor for each parameter =
= (weighting points for parameter) * ((weighting points for parameter) / (overall weighting points))
where:
• My initial reading about deriving the weighting factor indicated that the weighting factor was (weighting points for parameter) / (overall weighting points). However, if this used then the maximum obtainable score is only 1 rather than the 10 described.
DIDL =
= ((subscore for appearance) * (weighting factor for appearance)) + ((subscore for pain) * (weighting factor for pain)) + ((subscore for comfort) * (weighting factor for comfort)) + ((subscore for general performance) * (weighting factor for general performance)) + ((subscore for eating restrictions) * (weighting factor for eating restrictions))
Interpretation:
• minimum DIDL: -10
• maximum DIDL: +10
• The higher the score the greater the degree of satisfaction.
|
DIDL |
Classification |
|
-10 to -0.01 |
unsatisfied |
|
0 to 7 |
relatively satisfied |
|
7.01 to 10 |
satisfied |
