Dental plaque disclosure as an auxiliary method for infants' oral hygiene.

AIM

This was to evaluate the effectiveness of plaque disclosure as an auxiliary method for early childhoods' oral hygiene.

METHODS

The study was performed with 20 mothers and their children (aged 6-36 months), members of a preventive programme, which two groups used one of two approaches: conventional oral hygiene/group I (tooth brushing) and plaque disclosure with subsequent oral hygiene/group II (tooth brushing with prior plaque disclosure). Ten mothers started the study in group I and the other 10 in group II, after one month interval they changed to be in the alternate group. Each group consisted of baseline and three additional visits at weekly intervals. The effectiveness of oral hygiene was assessed in a blind fashion by plaque quantity estimation, using the Green Vermilion index for smooth surfaces and the plaque thickness index for occlusal surfaces. Statistical comparisons were performed using repeated measures ANOVA/Fisher's post hoc test and paired t-test (p < 0.05).

RESULTS

For smooth and occlusal surfaces at first and second visits, group II recorded significantly lower plaque indices when compared with group I. Additionally, when considering the mean dental plaque index of all visits, group II also presented lower plaque scores than group I.

CONCLUSION

Dental plaque disclosure before toothbrushing helps mothers to enhance the effectiveness of early childhood oral hygiene.

REGISTRATION NUMBER AND NAME OF TRIAL REGISTRY

RBR-7fyc7g; Avaliação do Treinamento e de Métodos Auxiliares na Efetividade da Escovação Dentária Materna em Bebês. Where the full trial protocol can be accessed: http://www.ensaiosclinicos.gov .