%0 Journal Article
%T Impact of Maxillofacial Prosthetic Rehabilitation on Quality of Life in Head and Neck Cancer Patients: A Prospective Clinical Study
%A Alejandro Torres
%A Miguel Fernandez
%J Journal of Current Research in Oral Surgery
%@ 3062-3480
%D 2026
%V 6
%N 1
%R 10.51847/61c35wUaMA
%P 123-127
%X Management of head-and-neck malignancies can diminish patient quality of life (QoL) by disrupting the structural and functional integrity of the oral and nasopharyngeal regions. Maxillofacial prosthetic intervention is warranted when head and neck anatomy cannot be reconstructed with viable tissue, when recurrence probability is elevated, when radiotherapy is delivered, or when bone segments are markedly displaced. This investigation aimed to determine whether maxillofacial prosthetic restoration influences patient QoL, using the University of Washington (UW) QoL instrument. This investigation employed a prospective interventional pre-post design with convenience sampling. Appliances were custom-fabricated based on the clinical presentation, employing heat-cured polymethyl methacrylate, maxillofacial silicone, or a combination of the two. The overall mean composite QoL score stood at 68.05 ± 16.98 before rehabilitation and rose to 73.22 ± 11.28 afterward. Chewing and saliva (oral dryness) registered the poorest scores (55 ± 9.2, 62 ± 8.6, respectively) across all domains, whereas pain and anxiety yielded the best scores (93 ± 3.7, 95 ± 1.5, respectively). Statistically significant improvements following prosthetic rehabilitation were observed in appearance, speech, swallowing, chewing, saliva, and overall QoL. Within the confines of this study and its chosen population, subjective assessment via the UW-QOL demonstrated that despite postsurgical and postreconstructive anatomical alterations and compromised physiology secondary to chemoradiation, oral cancer patients successfully adapted and regained near-normal oral status through prosthetic rehabilitation. Their enhanced QoL substantiated this adaptation at the one-month post-rehabilitation interval.
%U https://tsdp.net/article/impact-of-maxillofacial-prosthetic-rehabilitation-on-quality-of-life-in-head-and-neck-cancer-patient-f3bdqlli52ernjn