title: The effect of behaviour modification techniques on oral hygiene and gingival health of 10-year-old Canadian children.
abstract: Good oral hygiene habits in children are most desirable but are difficult to establish through conventional health education programmes. This study was designed to test the efficacy of a programme based on the use of several behaviour modification strategies. A sample of sixteen classes of 10-year-old children was randomly selected and assigned to either an experimental or control group. To monitor the oral health comparability of the groups, data were collected on caries experience, sugar intake and oral hygiene behaviour several times during the study period. The programme included the following elements: (1) dental examinations, (2) periodic visits by dental hygienists to the schools to teach brushing and flossing techniques and to monitor the quality of the children's performance, and (3) 'contracts' agreed by each child with the director of the programme and with one parent, to encourage commitment and to reinforce the desired behaviour. Loë and Silness plaque and gingival indices were used to measure the efficacy of the programme. For both indices, the difference between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups were statistically significant after a 4-month intensive phase of the programme. One year after all activities had stopped, the plaque index of the experimental group was still lower than that of the control group but insufficient to maintain a significant difference on the gingival index.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Health, University of Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Julien
mesh_terms: D001521:Behavior Therapy; D002170:Canada; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D004245:DMF Index; D003773:Dental Plaque / Q000517:prevention & control; D003774:Dental Plaque Index; D005260:Female; D005891:Gingivitis / Q000517:prevention & control; D006267:Health Education, Dental; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D009910:Oral Hygiene / Q000523:psychology*; D010512:Periodontal Index; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires