A Comparison of Oral Health Behavior and Oral Health Outcomes between Cooperative and Non-Cooperative Groups following Implementation of an Oral Health Care Program

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to reveal analyze the relationship between status of participation in an oral health care program and oral health outcomes among patients in Korea, and to evaluate the results to provide evidence regarding the feasibility of widespread implementation of the program. Patients were designated as either cooperative or non-cooperative with the oral health care program and were assigned to each group accordingly. Modified dental hygiene process (M-DHP) of the oral healthcare program was modified to form the dental hygiene process. The study included 48 patients at a dental clinic in Busan, Korea. Questionnaires were used to collect information on oral health behavior (OHB), clinical examination was used to record bleeding on probing (BOP) and O'Leary index, and phase microscopy was used to identify microorganisms. Differences between groups were evaluated using repeated measures ANOVA. Our results showed that the group cooperative with the oral health care program showed greater improvement in OHB, BOP, and O'Leary index than the non-cooperative group. Second, patient satisfaction with the M-DHP was very high, particularly for content and the friendly nature of the staff. The cooperative group showed greater improvement in oral health than the non-cooperative group for all metrics. Our results suggest that this low-coste program, if implemented, would be actively accepted and utilized in dental clinics.