Influence of active reminders on oral hygiene compliance in orthodontic patients

Abstract

A text message reminder system is effective for improving oral hygiene compliance in orthodontic patients.

A Mobile App (WhiteTeeth) to Promote Good Oral Health Behavior Among Dutch Adolescents with Fixed Orthodontic Appliances: Intervention Mapping Approach (Preprint)

“…Since numerous studies have shown that sending mobile text-messages as prompt cues is an effective way to improve oral hygiene during fixed orthodontic treatment [43,51,52], the app also provides an option for setting reminders for oral health-behavior tasks and the use of the brushing-timer.…”

“…To establish oral health-behavior change (targeting determinants: "support" and "cues to action/habit formation"), practical support and prompt cues were identified as useful methods [34,43,51,52]. To provide practical support, the app incorporates a brushing-timer, which users can turn on when they decide to brush.…”

“…This involves selecting behavior change methods and translating them into practical strategies that would be appropriate for designing the WhiteTeeth app. [28] In conjunction with the change objectives, the intervention development group selected methods on the basis of the literature on existing dental and orthodontic health promotion interventions [38,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55] and behavior-change methods or techniques (BCT's) [27,34,35]. The selected methods were translated into practical strategies that met the needs of adolescents with fixed orthodontic appliances and the requirements of the dental professionals involved.…”

Role of Text Message Reminder on Oral Hygiene Maintenance of Orthodontic Patients

“…Previous studies have shown that there is an initial decline in oral hygiene after bonding followed by increase in oral hygiene after 5th month of orthodontic treatment. 1 There are increased chances of WSLs around orthodontic brackets with excessive plaque accumulation. Inadequate plaque controls either pretreatment or during orthodontic treatment is associated with increased chances of WSL.…”

“…2 Earlier studies have shown that oral hygiene can be improved with reward system or active reminder therapy. 1 A systematic review in 2009 demonstrated the influence of text messages on behavioral changes in 13 out of 14 studies. 4 Nowadays, mobile usage has increased dramatically.…”