Patient-reported oral health status and perceptions on oral hygiene before and after oral prophylaxis: A pre-experimental clinical study in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Constant elimination of bacterial plaque from all nonshedding oral surfaces prevents the progression of periodontal diseases while oral prophylaxis supplements the patient's homecare plaque control. This study compared patient-reported outcomes of oral prophylaxis before and after the procedure and examined the relationship between self-rated and normatively assessed oral health at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. Methodology: A pre-experimental design was employed while data were obtained using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Oral cleanliness was documented using a five-point scale while participants' subjective assessment of their oral health status was done on Likert scale. The normative assessment was made with the oral hygiene index-simplified (OHI-S) and the gingival index (GI). Data entry and analysis were performed using the SPSS software version 20, whereas bivariate comparisons were made using the Chi-square and ANOVA tests. A 5% level of statistical significance was adopted. Results: Ninety-two respondents were enlisted. Sixty-seven (72.8%) respondents who rated their oral health as good had better oral hygiene with mean GI of 0.87 and OHI-S of 1.76 compared to the respondents with a poor self-rated oral health who had mean scores of 0.90 and 2.01, respectively. Females 39 (81.2%) had significantly better self-rated oral health (P = 0.048). Poor self-rated oral health was higher among participants with xerostomia and those that infrequently visited the dental clinic; and significantly higher among respondents with difficulty in mastication due to toothache within the past 6 months (6 [75.0%];P= 0.026). Conclusion: There was a positive association between self-rated oral health and normatively assessed oral health status. There was also a significant improvement in the subjects' perception on the benefit of scaling and polishing. The findings highlight the potential role of patients' beliefs and perceptions as potential impetus for treatment provision.

Keywords

• Oral hygiene
• oral prophylaxis
• self-rated oral health