Evaluation of an individually tailored oral health educational programme on periodontal health.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate an individually tailored oral health educational programme (ITOHEP) on periodontal health compared with a standard oral health educational programme. A further aim was to evaluate whether both interventions had a clinically significant effect on non-surgical periodontal treatment at 12-month follow-up.


METHODS
A randomized, evaluator-blinded, controlled trial with 113 subjects (60 females and 53 males) randomly allocated into two different active treatments was used. ITOHEP was based on cognitive behavioural principles and motivational interviewing. The control condition was standard oral hygiene education (ST). The effect on bleeding on probing (BoP), periodontal pocket depth, "pocket closure" i.e. percentage of periodontal pocket >4 mm before treatment that were <5 mm after treatment, oral hygiene [plaque indices (PlI)], and participants' global rating of oral health was evaluated. Preset criteria for PlI, BoP, and "pocket closure" were used to describe clinically significant non-surgical periodontal treatment success.


RESULTS
The ITOHEP group had lower BoP scores 12-month post-treatment (95% confidence interval: 5-15, p<0.001) than the ST group. No difference between the two groups was observed for "pocket closure" and reduction of periodontal pocket depth. More individuals in the ITOHEP group reached a level of treatment success. Lower PlI scores at baseline and ITOHEP intervention gave higher odds of treatment success.


CONCLUSIONS
ITOHEP intervention in combination with scaling is preferable to the ST programme in non-surgical periodontal treatment.
Jönsson
Birgitta
B
Department of Public Health and Caring Science, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. birgitta.jonsson@lul.se
Ohrn
Kerstin
K
Lindberg
Per
P
Oscarson
Nils
N
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D055113:Chronic Periodontitis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D003774:Dental Plaque Index; D012534:Dental Scaling; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006267:Health Education, Dental; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009910:Oral Hygiene / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010512:Periodontal Index; D010514:Periodontal Pocket / Q000628:therapy*; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome