LONDON, UK: Nowadays, the majority of people, even at a young age, own a mobile phone, making them a wide-reaching tool for interventions. For some time now, sports apps for smartphones have been used to improve general health, measuring distances and speed, for example. Why not extend this use to enhance oral health? A recent systematic review investigated whether mobile phones can be employed to address the global challenge of dental caries and found positive, but not generalisable, results.
In their review study, researchers from UCL Eastman Dental Institute in London and the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences at King’s College London assessed the effectiveness of interventions delivered by mobile phones in improving adherence to oral hygiene advice. They asserted that such devices may elicit behaviour change by the use of associated techniques to address capability, opportunity and motivation in an individual.
For the review, two randomised controlled trials involving a total of 130 patients met the inclusion criteria. The intervention in one study was by means of text messages and the other an app. Both studies involved patients undergoing orthodontic treatment and were conducted in a university setting.
Scroll down
advertisement
The results showed that the plaque scores were statistically significantly lower in the intervention group compared with the control group in both studies, but these had different follow-up periods. One study reported significantly lower gingival bleeding scores and caries at the final follow-up in the intervention group.
“There is some evidence that mobile phones are effective in improving adherence to oral hygiene advice in orthodontic patients. The generalisability of this review is limited due to the small number of trials and the unclear risk of bias of included studies,” concluded the authors in their paper.
The study, titled “A systematic review to assess interventions delivered by mobile phones in improving adherence to oral hygiene advice for children and adolescents”, was published in the 13 September 2019 issue of the British Dental Journal.
WARDHA, India: Health authorities in India face several obstacles in the efficient delivery of dental care, including a dentist-to-population ratio that is ...
NEW YORK, U.S.: In a bid to help children in foster care improve their oral health, New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and the...
In 2018, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Action for Dental Health Act of 2017. The bill was intended to address the dental health crisis in the...
DUNEDIN, New Zealand: The multicultural element of New Zealand society is something that brings with it many positives, but it can also create certain ...
CALAUAN, Philippines: Although international child sponsorship programmes are widely touted as offering critical global aid, particularly for children in ...
Each year, the FDI World Dental Congress features the World Oral Health Forum (WOHF), an in-depth session meant to spark discussion on the latest topics ...
CHAPEL HILL, N.C., US: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a global health concern, ranking as the sixth most common malignancy worldwide. Poor...
LONDON, UK: Factors such as glucose metabolism, nutrition, oxidative stress and ageing drive periodontal progression. However, current periodontal ...
LOS ANGELES, U.S.: In a recent study, researchers examined the effect that APG-157, a botanical plant-based drug that contains curcumin and was developed ...
GENEVA, Switzerland/NEW YORK, US: Orofacial clefts are the most common birth defects in the US. Children with orofacial clefts can be at an increased risk ...
Live webinar
Thu. 18 July 2024
8:00 pm EST (New York)
Live webinar
Tue. 6 August 2024
6:00 pm EST (New York)
Live webinar
Tue. 13 August 2024
7:00 pm EST (New York)
Live webinar
Wed. 21 August 2024
9:00 am EST (New York)
Dr. Jim Lai DMD, MSc(Perio), EdD, FRCD(C)
Live webinar
Wed. 28 August 2024
8:00 pm EST (New York)
Live webinar
Mon. 2 September 2024
5:00 am EST (New York)
Live webinar
Tue. 3 September 2024
11:00 am EST (New York)
To post a reply please login or register