Monitoring Doctor's Appointments and Increasing Patient's Commitment to Periodontal Diseases Treatment. Efficiency Evaluation

Abstract

Object. Periodontitis, as a chronic disease, must be treated comprehensively, in stages, with subsequent preventive medical examination. Periodontal treatment being a time-consuming process, requires special cooperation from both the doctor and for the patient. The results of the treatment largely depend on the patient's involvement in the process of treatment. It depends on how efficiently and timely patients fulfill all the recommendations. The task of a dentist is to assess and increase the level of patients’ compliance to treatment.
 Objective. To study the effect of the use of doctor's appointment monitoring using the patient's self-monitoring diary on the effectiveness of periodontitis treatment.
 Materials and methods. The object of the study was 63 patients diagnosed with chronic generalized periodontitis aged 32 to 63 years, who were 44.6 ± 5.8 years old in average. The patients were divided into two groups (No. 1 and No. 2). Group No. 1, after diagnosis, a conversation was conducted about the importance of compliance with doctor’s recommendations and sequence of prescribed treatment. Also, every patient was given a step-by-step list of appointments with the patient's diary, which they were to fill out. Group No. 2 received only medical appointments and recommendations. Diagnosis and treatment were carried out in accordance with the protocol for the management of patients with periodontal diseases developed by Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Moscow State Medical and Dental University named after A. I. Evdokimov" of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation, 2012. On the 7th day and after 1 month of the study, the effectiveness of the prescribed therapy was evaluated.
 Conclusions. The results of our study show that the appointment list and self-monitoring diary issued to patient are good ways to increase the patient's adherence to treatment, evaluation of medication intake, compliance with doctor's recommendations. This method undoubtedly increases the effectiveness of the prescribed treatment.