Anzeige
Erschienen in:
04.05.2021 | Randomized Clinical Trials
Influence of WhatsApp and electronic mail reminders on oral hygiene compliance of orthodontic patients using planimetry
A randomized clinical trial
Erschienen in: Journal of Orofacial Orthopedics / Fortschritte der Kieferorthopädie | Ausgabe 4/2022
Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhaltenAbstract
Purpose
To determine the effect of WhatsApp (Facebook Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA) and electronic mail reminders on oral hygiene compliance of orthodontic patients.
Methods
A randomized, parallel group, double blinded study was conducted on 54 patients undergoing orthodontic treatment at a university clinic. They were randomized to 3 groups, i.e., WhatsApp (W) group, electronic mail (email) (E) group and control (C) group with 18 subjects in each group. Group (W) and group (E) received oral health messages once a week through WhatsApp and email reminders, respectively, while group (C) did not receive any reminders. Plaque was measured at baseline (T0), after 4 weeks (T1), and after 8 weeks (T2). For each subject, intraoral photographs were taken after application of a plaque-disclosing agent; and the area covered by plaque was measured on teeth 12, 13, 43, 22, 23 and 33 by planimetry. Data were analyzed using SPSS (version 22, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare plaque scores between and within the groups.
Results
A total of 54 subjects (14 males and 40 females) with mean age of 22.43 years completed the study. At the end of 8 weeks, no statistically significant difference in the mean plaque score was found between the groups at the different time intervals (p = 0.201).
Conclusion
WhatsApp and email reminders did not significantly influence the oral hygiene compliance of orthodontic patients.