The effect of using mobile applications for improving oral hygiene in patients with orthodontic fixed appliances: a randomised controlled trial

Objective: To investigate the effect of using mobile applications active reminders to improve oral hygiene in comparison to verbal oral hygiene instructions.

Design: Two-arm parallel randomised controlled trial.

Setting: orthodontic clinics at two branches of a university hospitals of the college of dentistry of Riyadh Colleges of Dentistry and Pharmacy, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Participants: Forty-four 12-year-old and older subjects.

Method: Subjects undergoing orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances were randomly assigned to one of two groups using simple randomisation. Group I: subjects received a mobile application that sends active reminders of oral hygiene three times a day (n?=?22). Group II: subjects received verbal oral hygiene instructions verbally during their routine orthodontic visits (n?=?22). Two primary outcomes were assessed using plaque index (PI) and gingival index (GI) for Ramfjord teeth to evaluate the level of oral hygiene at baseline and after 4 weeks.

Results: Mean differences for PI and GI for group I were reduced from T1 to T2 (P?P?P?>?0.05, P?>?0.05). Both PI and GI significantly reduced for group I compared to group II between T1 and T2 (P?P?Conclusions: PI and GI all significantly decreased after 4 weeks of using active reminders of oral hygiene instructions on mobile application compared to verbal oral hygiene instructions.

The study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov with number: NCT03109769.