Aim: Oral Health related quality of life (OHQoL) in dentistry is gaining increasing importance. To properly estimate and interpret information about OHQoL characteristics of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) and their influencing factors have to be examined.Aim of the following study was to characterise dimensions and reveal influencing factors of OHQoL by means of a patient sample of the Dental School Dresden. Material and Method: 112 patients of the Dental School Dresden who had not been to a dentist within the last three months and were 18 years or older had been surveyed as part of a multicenter study. After self completing of the OHIP (49 questions), clinical and sociodemographic data were recorded based on a dental examination. The statistical approach comprised multivariate stepwise logistic regression Analyses. Results: Two thirds of the patients were women; the average age was 52.6 years. 46 % of the patients had 25 or more teeth, 7% were edentulous. 68% of all patients showed general treatment need.In the univariate Analyses the median of the OHIP sum-score (OHIP-ADD) was 12; the 75. Percentile was OHIP-ADD=27. The OHIP-ADD median of patients with 9 - 16 teeth (OHIP-ADD = 42) and with surgical treatment need (OHIP-ADD= 30) were remarkably high. In multivariate statistical analyses prosthetic treatment need (p=0.007) and missing anterior teeth (p=0.03; regardless whether replaced or not) were significant explanatory variables for the model. Conclusion: In this sample, OHQoL can be explained by the clinical variables prosthetic treatment need and location of missing teeth (regardless of replacement) but not or to a letter extent by sociodemographic factors like gender, age and level of education. Keywords: Mundgesundheit, Lebensqualität, OHIP, multivariate Statistik