What factors influence patient compliance with supportive periodontal therapy in a general practice setting?

Background The importance of supportive periodontal therapy following active treatment has been well documented but numerous studies have shown patient compliance to be poor. The aim of this study was to ascertain which factors affect patient compliance and whether this included routinely recorded periodontal indices.Methodology This was a five-year retrospective service evaluation study set within a private general dental practice. It utilised demographic and periodontal data from patients who attended the practice for chronic periodontal treatment in 2009 and ascertained whether there were links between this data and compliance with the supportive phase of periodontal treatment.Results Three hundred and ten patients satisfied the inclusion criteria of which 32.3% were categorised as compliant, 45.5% non-compliant and 22.3% erratic attenders. Patients who were statistically significantly more compliant were males (p = 0.03) and non-smokers (p = 0.01). There was a trend for older people to be more compliant; however this was not statistically significant. Plaque and bleeding scores were lower in the compliant group but only the bleeding scores were statistically significant (p = 0.03). The pocket probing depths were used as an indicator of disease severity and showed no significant relationship with compliance.Conclusion Although some of the periodontal parameters showed a statistically significant relationship with compliance, the difference between the parameters was clinically minimal suggesting that there is no definitive physical characteristic which is an indicator of patient compliance.