To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the short-form of the Children Perceived Oral Health Questionnaire aimed at assessing child's oral health-related quality of life of children aged 11-14 years (CPQ11-14 ). A secondary objective was to explore its screening qualities for evaluating oral health needs and immediate referral for treatment. This cross-sectional study was conducted during August-December of 2011 in Monterrey, Mexico (n = 303 schoolchildren). The CPQ11-14 consisted of 16 items and 2 key questions. Dental caries was diagnosed by visual-tactile exam, and malocclusion by WHO index. We estimated Cronbach's alpha and Spearman's correlations and compared rank scores with the Mann-Whitney test. As we did not have a preestablished cutoff point score, we identified one with the best combination of sensitivity/specificity values using receiver operating characteristic curves. Internal consistency was 0.85. Correlation was 0.40 (P