Zeitschrift für Mundhygiene und Gesundheit

Abstrakt

Does Text Messaging Reminder Help in the Orthodontic Compliance of Patients to Maintain their Oral Hygiene

Harshal Jejurikar, Salil Nene, Ajit Kalia, Gaurav Gupta and Nasim Mirdehghan

Objective: To determine if text messaging reminders regarding oral hygiene have any influence on the level of compliance with an orthodontic population.

Material & Method: 50 orthodontic patients were considered out of which 25 patients’ parents were assigned text message group & 25 parents of patients were assigned in the non-text message group, which did not receive a reminder text message (control group). Message was sent once a week for 4 months. Oral hygiene compliance was measured using, plaque index (PI), and visual examination of white spot lesion (WSL). 1st appointment after two month (T0); 2nd appointment after three months (T1); 3rd appointments after four months (T2);4th appointment after five months (T3).

Results: The average plaque index is significantly higher in Control group compared to Text-messaging group at 3 and 4 months post-messaging follow-ups while incidence of white spot lesions is significantly higher in control group compared to the text-messaging group at 3 months and 4 months post-messaging follow-ups.

Conclusion: A text message reminder system explaining the importance of oral hygiene sent to patients once weekly is an effective way to improve oral hygiene compliance in orthodontic patients.