Objetive:

To identify the instruments most frequently used to measure health-related quality of life in patients with periodontitis during the last five years.

Materials and methods:

A systematic review of the literature was performed in Pubmed, LILACS, Scielo and Google scholar databases. Observational and experimental studies published between the years 2010-2015 that met the selection criteria were selected.

Results:

338 articles were identified, of which 16 were included in this review. The most frequently used instrument is the Oral Health Impact Profile (50 %), followed by the other scales that obtained 12,5 %. Studies indicate that periodontitis can negatively impact quality of life, but this perception can be substantially improved upon treatment of the disease.

Conclusions:

It is necessary the modification or creation of new instruments which can measure the real impact of periodontitis in the quality of life; also, to motivate the researchers to implement a higher methodological rigorousness and techniques standardization to obtain reliable results of the instruments used.

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