Improving Patients’ Compliance to the Treatment of Periodontitis:

Objectives: This clinical trial study investigates whether a behavioral educational intervention based on the autoregulation theory can improve periodontitis patients' compliance to proper dental care. Methods: Patients were randomly assigned to a control or an experimental treatment condition. In the control condition, patients received instructions of the proper prophylactic dental care. In the experimental treatment condition, patients received information about symptoms of periodontitis, its causes, consequences and types of effective strategy and were request to fill in daily observation of the effects of applying prophylactic dental care. In both groups, plaques indices (Pl.I.) were measured prior to treatment and at a one-month follow-up. A self-report questionnaire also assessed the representation of periodontitis in all patients. Results: The 2 X 2 ANOVA computed on the mean global plaque index revealed a larger decrease in the experimental group.The 2 X 3 X 2 ANOVA computed on the different locations of indices reports a large effect of time, F(1, 28) = 267.10, p < .000, indicating that both groups improved from baseline (Mean = 1.73, Std. Dev. = 0.08) to the one-month follow-up (Mean = 0.56, Std. Dev. = 0.06). Importantly, this analysis also revealed the expected Group X Time interaction, F(1, 28) = 7.09, p < .02, partial į2 = .19, indicating that smaller Pl.I. were observed in the experimental group than in the control group at follow up. Post-hoc analyses showed that this pattern applies to the proximal and lingual indices but not on the vestibular indices. Conclusions: The present data show that the behavioral education intervention is (a) more effective than a classical intervention based on information and training about prophylactic techniques, and (b) that it is effective in bringing most patients to normal levels of Pl.I..