Effectiveness of educational program on fixed orthodontic appliance treatment on patient’s oral hygiene

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate whethereducated dental patients undergoing fixed orthodontic treatmentshowing better oral hygiene than dental patients who arenot educated.The sample is comprised of 16 orthodontic patients (3males and 13 females), 11–22 years old chosen randomly amongpatients at Department of Pedodontics, Orthodontics andPreventive Dentistry of College of Dentistry at Mosul University.The sample is divided equally into 2 groups; the first groupwas educated concerning fixed orthodontic treatment inrelation to oral hygiene and given education and instruction tokeep good oral hygiene during orthodontic treatment. Thesecond group is not educated. Swabs were taken from supra–gingival plaque of facial surface of upper right and lower leftcentral incisors, and upper left and lower right first molar teeth;one before orthodontic treatment and another (4–6 weeks)later and subjected to bacteriological investigation. Qualitativedata about oral microorganisms were collected and subjectedto statistical analysis.The results indicated that during treatment records forboth educated and non–educated groups show significant differencefor certain types of microorganisms and at differentlocations with the educated group scores the least in comparisonwith non–educated group