Maintenance of Dental Hygiene in Various Brushing Practices Among Orthodontic Patients with Multi-Bracket Fixed Appliances

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the plaque index of orthodontic patients with multibracket fixed appliances in various brushing practices.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the orthodontic department of a tertiary care hospital. The inclusion criteria were patients, aged 15–30 years, of both genders who receive at least six months of treatment with multi-bracket fixed appliances. The patients with restored teeth, mental incompatibility and craniofacial syndromes/anomalies were placed in exclusion criteria. Silness and Loe index for plaque were recorded for each patient. Independent sample t-test and One-way ANOVA were applied to determine the difference in plaque scores for various brushing practices. The level of significance was set at less than or equal to 0.05.

Results: The gender distribution of the study sample came out to be 36.9% males and 63.1% females. Statistically significant differences in plaque scores for the variables like the method of brushing (p = 0.02), practice of brushing (p = 0.009) and timing of brushing (p = 0.001) were seen. Post hoc Bonferroni test showed a statistically significant difference between the variables like once per day and twice per day (p = 0.018), once per day and more than twice per day (p = 0.040) and before breakfast and after breakfast (p = 0.001).

Conclusions: The use of interdental brushing in addition to normal brushing and mouthwash produces minimal improvement in plaque reduction. The male and female subjects comply equally with oral hygiene measures. Brushing twice a day after breakfast and before going to bed significantly reduces plaque in orthodontic patients.