Behavioural educational intervention can improve patients’ compliance with prophylaxis: Can behavioural educational interventions based on the self-regulation theory improve periodontitis patients’ compliance with proper dental care?

Design A randomised controlled trial (RCT) was conducted in a university periodontology clinic.InterventionPatients were randomly assigned to a control or an experimental treatment group. For the control, patients received the standard treatment based on instruction about proper prophylactic dental care. For the experimental treatment, patients received information about the symptoms of periodontitis, the causes, consequences and temporal course, and types of effective treatment strategy. The experimental treatment group were also asked to keep daily records of the effects of applying prophylactic dental care on their periodontitis symptoms. A self-reported questionnaire assessed the progress of periodontitis in all patients.Outcome measurePlaque indices (PI) were calculated prior to treatment and at a 1-month follow-up.ResultsA total of 33 individuals were recruited, of whom 30 completed the study, 15 in each group. Both groups improved from baseline (mean PI, 1.73; standard deviation (SD), 0.08) to the 1-month follow-up. Smaller PI were observed in the experimental group (mean, 0.24; SD, 0.14) than in the control group (mean, 0.88; SD, 0.38) at follow-up. Post hoc analyses showed that this pattern applied to the proximal and lingual PI but not to the vestibular PI. No differences were found in responses to all questionnaire items between groups.ConclusionsThese data showed that the behavioural education intervention, based on information and training about prophylactic techniques, is more effective than a classical intervention and that it is effective in improving most patients' PI to normal levels. © 2006 EBD.