Psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the Orofacial Esthetic Scale (OES-NL) in dental patients with and without self-reported tooth wear

The aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the Orofacial Esthetic Scale (OES) in dental patients with and without self-reported tooth wear. The English version of the OES was translated into Dutch, following established guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation of health-related quality of life measures. The reliability of the resulting OES-NL was tested in a test-retest study on 343 subjects; its validity was tested with the use of convergent validity on 582 subjects. The test-retest reliability of the OES-NL showed intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) that ranged from 0·76 to 0·82, which can be qualified as excellent. The Cronbach's alpha revealed that the overall internal consistency of the scale was good (α = 0·89). Convergent validity was confirmed by the association between the OES-NL summary scores and three questions of the Dutch version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-NL). The calculated Spearman's rank correlation coefficients ranged from -0·43 to -0·54 and were all significant (P < 0·001). The Dutch version of the Orofacial Esthetic Scale (OES-NL) showed good psychometric properties, making it suitable for the assessment of self-perceived aesthetics in Dutch dental patients with and without self-reported tooth wear.