title: Drilling Deeper into tooth brushing skills: Is proactive interference an under-recognized factor in oral hygiene behavior change?
abstract: Proper tooth brushing is a seemingly simple motor activity that can promote oral health. Applying health theories, such as theInformation-Motivation-Behavioral Skills(IMB) model, Motivational Interviewing (MI) and Integrated Health Coaching (IHC), may help optimize tooth brushing technique in those with suboptimal skills. Some motor activities, including tooth brushing, may over time become rote and unconscious actions, such that an existing habit can inhibit new learning, i.e., exertproactive interferenceon learning the new skill. Proactive interference may impede the acquisition of new tooth brushing skills; thus, in this report, we: (1) Review how the habit of tooth brushing is formed; (2) Postulate how proactive interference could impede the establishment of proper tooth brushing retraining; (3) Discuss the merits of this hypothesis; and (4) Provide guidance for future work in this topic within the context of an approach to behavior change that integrates IMB, MI and IHC methodology.
authors.affiliation: Rooban Thavarajah, MDS, Professor, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Ragas Dental College and Hospital, 2/102 East Coast Road, Uthandi, Chennai - 600 119, Ph: +91-44 - 24530002, - 24530009, t.roobanmds@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Rooban
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thavarajah
authors.affiliation: Madan Kumar Parangimalai Diwakar, MDS, Professor and Head, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Ragas Dental College and Hospital, 2/102 East Coast Road, Uthandi, Chennai - 600 119, Ph: +91-44 - 24530002, - 24530009, madankumar21@yahoo.co.in.
authors.forename: Madan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Anusa Arunachalam Mohandoss, MD, Consultant Psychiatrist, CS4, Bay Breeze Duraisamy Apartments, 119, East Coast Road, Tiruvanmiyur, Chennai - 600 041, India, Ph: 9994167035, anusamd@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Anusa Arunachalam
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Mohandoss
authors.affiliation: Lance T. Vernon, DMD, MPH, Case Western Reserve University, School of Dental Medicine, Department of Biological Sciences, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-4905, Ph (216) 368-0712, Fax (216) 368-4193, ltv1@case.edu.
authors.forename: Lance T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Vernon
keywords: Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills model; Integrative Health Coaching; Proactive Interference; Tooth brushing; learning; memory