Effectiveness of Two Health Education Interventions in the Prevention of Caries and Gingivitis in Orthodontic Patients

Dental caries and gingivitis are classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an important public health problem due to their high prevalence and incidence worldwide despite the development of public policies to combat them. They are chronic diseases that have a severe impact in terms of pain and suffering, impairment of function and effect on quality of life. During orthodontic treatments, the most common adverse event is the appearance of dental caries lesions and gingivitis due to increased retention and change of dental biofilm composition or difficulty of removal with conventional oral hygiene techniques. Efforts to implement various conventional preventive interventions of self-care and education have not decreased their incidence, so it is necessary to implement motivational interventions to help adolescents and young adults to make positive changes in their oral health habits, which are constant and lasting and prevent and control gingivitis and caries.

Dental caries and gingivitis are multifactorial diseases, however the only necessary factor, although insufficient for their development, is bacterial biofilm; brackets significantly increase its retention and limit self- cleaning mechanisms, representing a challenge in clinical practice. Motivational interventions in oral health could be an alternative to generate behavioral changes in oral health and daily self-care routines that are more sustainable over time compared to conventional education models in patients with fixed orthodontic appliances. A randomized controlled clinical trial open to subjects and single-blinded (investigators) of parallel groups is proposed for the evaluation of the effect of motivational interviewing combined with conventional oral health education (OHEc) versus OHEc, in the prevention of dental caries lesions and gingivitis. A sample size of 94 patients in total is proposed, distributed 47 in each arm of the study, with a follow-up of the cohort for six months. The baseline risk will be established before the placement of fixed appliances (T0), and a follow-up will be carried out during six months, with assessments in one (T1), three(T2) and six months (T3) after cementation, where the presence of gingivitis, caries and changes in risk variables, adverse events and adherence to conventional and motivational interventions, will be measured.