Association between perceived oral health and oral health-related quality of life among hospital staff.

Background: Oral health is closely linked to well-being at work; however, evidence in hospital personnel remains limited. Methods: Cross-sectional study in a Level II-1 hospital (n = 72). Oral-health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) was measured with OHIP-14 and perceived oral health (POH) with a modified HU-DBI. Bivariate associations were estimated with Spearman's ρ and 95% confidence intervals; domain-level relationships were examined with proportional-odds ordinal logistic regression (Nagelkerke's pseudo-R Results: OHRQoL was distributed as 38.9% Excellent, 26.4% Fair and 34.7% Poor; POH concentrated in the Low level (52.8%), followed by Excellent (29.2%) and Fair (18.1%). POH correlated positively with OHRQoL (ρ = 0.391; 95% CI 0.18-0.57; p = 0.001). Domain-level analyses showed the strongest links for psychological discomfort (ρ = 0.421; p < 0.001; pseudo-R Conclusions: Better perceived oral health is significantly associated with higher oral-health-related quality of life among hospital staff. Consequently, targeted workplace strategies, including education for self-care, pain management, and functional support, could enhance oral well-being. Moreover, open instruments and pilot reliability outputs are available to ensure transparency and reproducibility.