the quality of life is concerned with  the degree to which a person enjoys the important possibilities of life. oral health has a major impact on the general quality of life . people 's oral health status can affect them physically and psychologically and influence how they enjoy life ; how they look , speak , chew , taste , enjoy food , and socialize . it also affects their self - esteem , self - image , and feelings of social well - being . successful aging is related to maintaining one 's quality of life , which in turn is dependent on how well individuals can fulfill these day to day activities . oral diseases seriously impair the quality of life in a large number of individuals and they may affect various aspects of their life , including function , appearance , interpersonal relationships , and career opportunities . poor oral health not only has an effect on the general health , but also might restrict various day - to - day activities leading to loss of working hours . oral health is an integral part of general health and health of the police personnel is of utmost importance , as they are personnel who work against crime and facilitate the people to live in peace and harmony with each other , and thus help the growth of the nation . the mission of the police of a state is to help the common man , to provide security , and to create a peaceful and law - abiding community with his cooperation . police personnel are a group of professionals , who have an altogether different working environment , with 24 hours duty , often being exposed to the highest form of physical strain and mental stress . on account of their odd working pattern , they often miss timely food , sleep , rest , recreation , and family contact . due to these factors , police personnel this complicates their general as well as oral health , which in turn has an influence on their life and level of living . in india , few studies have been carried out to assess the oral health status of police personnel , but very scanty literature exists on the impact of oral health on the oral health - related quality of life in police personnel . the objective of the study was to assess the impact of caries prevalence on the oral health - related quality of life among police personnel in virajpet , south india . prior permission was taken from the deputy superintendent of police ( dysp ) , virajpet , and the police sub inspector ( psi ) of the respective police station to conduct the study . the virajpet taluk consists of six police stations , with a total of 296 police personnel . the sampling technique used was simple random sampling , without replacement , for a sample size n = 296 . a sample size of n = 172 was obtained by using the formula , where , e was the desired level of precision , which we had selected to be 5% . the police personnel were explained about the study and informed consent was obtained from the study participants . the questionnaire was typed both in the local language ( kannada ) and english , to ensure comprehensibility by all police personnel . the internal reliability ( cronbach alpha ) of the questionnaire was tested in a pilot study done and was found to be acceptable ( 0.7 ) . the first part of the questionnaire consisted of questions on the sociodemographic factors , which recorded the sex and age of the police personnel . the second part of questionnaire was pertaining to the impact of oral health on the quality of life , which was measured by the oral health impact profile ( ohip-14 ) questionnaire . each question in the ohip-14 questionnaire was answered on a five - point likert scale , with answers ranging from  very often to  never, and the possible scores ranged from 14 to 70 . the questionnaires were distributed to the police personnel personally and they were given sufficient time to answer the questions , and the questionnaire was collected back on the same day . after receiving the filled questionnaires from the participants , a clinical examination was carried out by a trained , calibrated , single examiner and the caries experiences of the participants were recorded as per the who criteria ( 1997 ) . the ethical approval for the study was obtained from the institutional ethical committee of the coorg institute of dental sciences , virajpet , south india . the spss version 20.0 software for windows was employed for statistical analysis . the frequency distributions of the responses to the questions were produced . in addition to descriptive statistics , pearson 's correlation was used to assess the relationship between the variables . anova was used to compare the within - group differences of the selected sociodemographic factors in the study . most of them were male ( n = 154 , 89.5% ) and only 18 participants ( 10.5% ) were females . their mean age was 38.02  9.08 years and their age ranged from 20 to greater than 50 years . as shown in tables 1 and 2 there were no significant differences between the within - group comparison of age , gender or oral health - related quality of life . sixty - eight ( 39.5% ) of the study participants were happy with their teeth and 66 ( 38.4% ) participants were happy with the appearance of their teeth . ninety - eight ( 57% ) of the study subjects responded that they never avoided smiling and laughing and 90 ( 52.3% ) never felt embarrassed due to their oral health . between and within - group comparison of age and oral health - related quality of life between and within - group comparison of gender and oral health - related quality of life distribution of respondents by question and score other questions , such as , any difficulty in pronouncing words , avoiding certain types of food , headaches , problems in any other part of their body because of problems with their mouth or teeth were asked , to which 115 ( 66.9% ) , 80 ( 46.5% ) , 91 ( 52.9% ) , and 109 ( 63.4% ) of the participants replied negatively . fifty - five ( 32% ) participants answered that they could have meals properly and 51 ( 29.7% ) replied to being satisfied with their regular food habits . out of 172 police personnel 128 ( 74.4% ) , 111 ( 64.5% ) , 117 68% ) , and 118 ( 68.6% ) acknowledged that they never avoided other people , oral health never affected their ability to work or their everyday activities , never felt that life has been less satisfactory , and they had never been totally incapable of functioning , respectively . it is evident from the table 4 that oral health - related quality of life scores were negatively correlated with the caries prevalence score ( r = -0.173 ) and it was statistically significant . correlation of total oral health - related quality of life scores of the subjects with caries prevalence ( dmft ) it can be observed from table 5 that there was no significant association between caries prevalence decayed , missing and filled teeth ( dmft ) and the oral health - related quality of life scores . association between caries prevalence ( dmft ) and oral health - related quality of life scores the fact that the police personnel are quite often engaged in 24-hour duty , puts them under a lot of physical as well as mental strain . the present cross - sectional , self - administered questionnaire study was conducted in order to obtain data regarding the oral health of the police personnel of the virajpet taluk , as well as , the impact of this on their oral health - related quality of life . the reliability score of the questionnaire was assessed from a pilot study and was found to be 0.7 , which is considered good . the high prevalence of caries in the present study may be because police personnel stay for a long time in their working environment , thus giving less priority for oral health . not many studies have been published for comparison with this population group . however , a study done on police personnel in haryana showed a lower caries prevalence among the police personnel in that region . in the present study , between and within - group comparison of age and oral health - related quality of life was not statistically significant , which was similar to the other studies . moreover , the comparison of gender and oral health - related quality of life was not statistically significant . this result was similar to the other studies and was in contrast to the other studies . in the present study the total women police personnel were less , and therefore , a difference may not have been found . women and younger age groups , in particular , perceived oral health as impacting more strongly on their life quality , as compared to men and older people . it is important to highlight the gender effect , as women have specific oral health needs and these must be addressed by the oral healthcare services . conflicting evidence on the influence of sex on the perceptions of how oral health impacts the quality of life has been reported . discerning sex differences in oral health is important and may facilitate understanding the differences in oral health practices , such as , service utilization , which requires further investigation . police personnel are exposed to many different types of stress that may affect the sleep quality and physical health , such as physical injury , injuring others in the line of duty , and witnessing death or injuries to other officers and civilians . the impact of this high rate of exposure on their emotional health has long been a significant public health concern . in addition , police officers are exposed to chronic non - traumatic stress arising from the demands of their work environment . therefore , it can be hypothesized that police officers engaged in operational activities , which include exposure to danger and risk of life , would be more stressed . police officers carrying out operational duties , being more exposed to confrontation , violence , and day - to - day involvement in a variety of traumatic incidents , would present a greater prevalence of emotional stress - and consequently bruxism - than those who do organizational work and are less subject to risks . it can be observed that oral health - related quality of life was negatively correlated with caries prevalence ( r = 0.173 ) . however , no significant association was observed between the prevalence of dental caries and quality of life scores among the police personnel . this is because , although they had high caries prevalence , probably the extent of the caries was less severe , so the impact was less on their oral health - related quality of life . therefore , further studies have to be carried out for a better understanding of the impact of dental caries on the quality of life . furthermore , the very cross - sectional design of the study limits the validity of the study . keeping this in view , further longitudinal studies have to designed and carried out for a better understanding of the impact of stress on dental caries in this population group . the present study showed that there was no association with oral health - related quality of life and caries prevalence among police personnel in virajpet . the sample of police personnel provided a unique opportunity to study a large population from diverse socioeconomic and geographical backgrounds . hence , their health was of utmost importance , not only for them and their families , but also for the entire nation . prevention oriented health education lectures should be delivered , and possibly , should also form part of police training curriculum . prevention oriented health education lectures should be delivered , and possibly , should also form part of police training curriculum .