Given that life expectancy has increased considerably due to medical and technological advances, in recent years researchers have decided to meet the specific needs of the elderly in order to provide them better health care, in view of the fact that the aging process generates physical, biological and social changes. On the basis of this knowledge it becomes evident the impact of general health and oral health quality of life, which usually has a negative impact. Consequently, the aim of this work is to provide researchers and clinicians a review of the instruments that have been used for evaluation of the quality of life related to oral health. These instruments are the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP), the Oral Impacts on Daily Performances (OIDP) and the General Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI). Supplementary to the explanation of these instruments, our aim is to describe their structure, assessment, validation and application in studies performed on elderly Mexicans. In addition to this, we review some of the reports that compare the usefulness of those instruments.