Experiential Oral Health Promotion in Orthodontists' Offices: An Experimental Investigation

Objectives: Engaging adolescent orthodontic patients in constructive oral hygiene efforts can be a challenge. The objectives were to explore whether an experiential educational intervention during a first visit to the orthodontist would result in improved (a) oral health behavior and (b) attitudes compared to oral health education efforts.
Methods: Data were collected from 105 11-16 year old orthodontic patients at the beginning and end of their first visit, and one, two and three months later. At their first visit, 55 patients received an experiential educational intervention demonstrating the benefits of brushing, flossing and healthy diets; 50 patients received oral health education.
Results: Patients in the experiential condition increased their behavioral intention to floss from the beginning to the end of their first appointment compared to the control group (6-point scale: 1=never to 6=two or more times per day: experiential group before:2.71 /after: 3.87; control group: 2.88/3.22;p<.001); importance ratings of engaging in good oral health care also increased from the beginning to after the experiential intervention, while the control group's attitudes remained unchanged (5-point scale with 5 highest importance: 4.25/4.43 vs. 4.38/4.38;p=0.011). An analysis of changes from baseline to one (M1), two (2 M) and three months (M3) later showed changes over time for both groups. For example, they increased the mean degree of being bothered when teeth were not clean over the three month period (before education: 3.53 vs. end of baseline: 3.89/M1:3.89/M2:4.00/M3:4.14;p<0.001). However, interaction effects were found with experimental group subjects improving more than control group subjects (3.51/4.00/4.06/4.26 vs. 3.56/3.78/3.94/4.00;p<0.001).
Conclusions: Adolescents improved their oral hygiene efforts and attitudes more after engaging in experiential oral health education compared to oral health education. The effects of this one time intervention at baseline persisted over a three months period, raising the question whether repeating these interventions at follow-up visits might be even more effective.