Behavioural Medicine Perspectives for Change and Prediction of Oral Hygiene Behaviour Development and Evaluation of an Individually Tailored Oral Health Educational Program

Abstract: This thesis is about a behavioural medicine approach in periodontal treatment and oral hygiene self-care. The aim of this thesis was to develop, describe, and evaluate an individually tailored oral health educational program on oral hygiene behaviour and non-surgical periodontal treatment success, and to determine factors of importance for predicting oral hygiene behaviour.Two separate studies, both conducted at a specialist clinic for periodontics in a Swedish county council are described. In the first study, the program was developed and described in two experimental single-case studies with multiple baseline designs (Paper I). The second study was a randomised controlled single-blinded trial [n = 113, mean age 51.2, 53% female] in which, the effectiveness of the program was compared with standard treatment on oral hygiene habits, plaque control, and gingivitis (Paper II), periodontal status (Paper III), and attitudes, subjective norms, and self-efficacy (Paper IV). The tailored oral health educational program included a motivational interviewing method and cognitive behavioural techniques, and the individual tailoring for each participant was based on participants’ thoughts and cognitions, intermediate and long-term goals, and oral health status.Participants in the individually tailored program reported higher frequency of daily interdental cleaning and were more confident about maintaining the attained level of behaviour change, had better oral hygiene, and healthier gingival tissue, particularly interproximally. There was a great reduction in periodontal pocket depth and bleeding on probing scores (BoP) for participants in both programs with a greater reduction in BoP scores in the tailored-treatment group. A lower dental plaque score at treatment start increased the predicted probability of attaining treatment success, and self-efficacy towards interdental cleaning predicted oral hygiene behaviour.These studies demonstrate an individually tailored oral health education program is preferable to standard program as an oral hygiene behaviour change interventions in non-surgical periodontal treatment.