Video and plaque disclosing tablets improved oral hygiene indices in adult orthodontic patients compared to verbal instructions aloneVerbal instructions may be enough for orthodontic patients to improve oral hygiene

INTRODUCTION: The objective of the study was to compare outcomes in terms of Bleeding index (BI), Gingival Index (GI) and Orthodontic Plaque Index (OPI) with videographic and plaque disclosing tablets (PDT) versus verbal instructions in orthodontic patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adult orthodontic patients were randomly allocated to three groups, that is, Interventions (video, PDT) and Control (verbal) groups. Pre- and post-interventional measurements were taken at two intervals only for BI, GI and OPI. A computer-generated randomization list was used to allocate subjects to one of the three study groups using a random permuted block sampling of 6 and 9 to randomise the samples. A total of 99 subjects were assessed for eligibility out of which 96 participants were randomised as three declined to be part of this trial. RESULTS: The mean change in the oral hygiene indices score was assessed and we found no statistically significant difference among the three interventional groups. Pre- and post-interventional results showed statistically significant improvement in the oral hygiene indices for all the interventional groups. No statistically significant difference was found for age, gender and education level on oral hygiene indices. General estimation equation showed that the verbal group produced significantly higher mean BI change as compared to other groups. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results of this open-label randomised control trial, it seems that all interventions had a positive impact on the oral hygiene indices in the 4-month follow-up. Age, gender and education have no significant impact on oral hygiene practices. Verbal instructions still hold an important part of daily practice. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT0438642.