Abstract

EVALUATION OF METHODS DEMONSTRATING ORAL HYGIENE TECHNIQUES AMONG PATIENTS WITH GINGIVAL DISEASE

Sooreesha Shivani Arangkulavan* and Jaiganesh Ramamurthy

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether proper demonstration of oral hygiene techniques can help improve in the oral hygiene status and the health of the gingiva. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 30 gingivitis patients were randomly assigned and divided into 3 different groups (10 each). Patients were educated on Modified Bass technique by verbal instructions to group A, by model representations to group B and via audio visual aids to group C. All the patients were re-called and re-examined after 30 days. A post intervention of plaque index (PI) and gingival index(GI) was measured and statistical analysis was done and compared with the baseline data using paired t-test and for the multivariate analysis the one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s Post-Hoc test was used. RESULTS: Statistically significant reduction in (PI) and (GI) was seen in group C followed by group B and the least effective ness was seen in group A. CONCLUSION: This study showed that audio-visual was the most effective demonstration in conveying the Modified Bass technique followed by model demonstration and the least effective was verbal demonstration.

Keywords: dental plaque, tooth brushing technique, verbal, audio-visual aids, plaque index.