Methods: Fifty-one 12-year-old secondary school students with unfavorable oral health behaviour (“brushing teeth less often than twice a day” and/or “snacking twice or more a day”) were interviewed individually by a dentist or a dental hygienist who were trained as MI counselors. Students’ progress in behavioural change was followed 1 and 8 weeks after MI. The MI conversations were analyzed qualitatively, whereas the MI effectiveness was evaluated quantitatively through psychological and behavioural outcomes.
Results: MI sessions with participants ranged 9-21 minutes. The qualitative analysis found that prior reassurance helped resolving adolescents’ concern of “being different from others”. Participants’ concerns over impacts of “bad teeth” on their esthetics and social activities served as unique opportunities to bring them into meaningful discussion and explore their expectations on their oral health. Among the hurdles deterring the adolescents’ attempt on healthy practice were their limited access to healthy snacks and difficulties in adhering to their plans during social functions. Discussions over these helped enhancing their self-efficacy. When proceeding to goal setting, students tended to be over-ambitious and thus they needed assistance in setting realistic goals and agenda. The average number of self-motivational statements uttered by the participants was 4.31+/-2.19. MI counseling enhanced the readiness to change in 40 (78%) participants; 33 (67%) initiated behavioural change; 25 (52%) maintained the change after 8 weeks. Self-motivational statements were indicative of the likelihood of initiating and maintaining behavioural changes (p = 0.005 and 0.040, respectively).
Conclusions: MI is practical in dental setting and may elicit dentally healthy behaviours of adolescents. (Supported by University of Hong Kong CRCG Grant #10401073)