Abstract
Statement of problemDenture wearers are susceptible to diseases related to denture hygiene and are more prone to develop systemic disease because of poor understanding and awareness of the impact of edentulism on general health. PurposeThe purpose of this clinical study was to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional chairside practice and WhatsApp in improving patient knowledge of denture care and their awareness of the impact of edentulism on general health. Material and methodsSixty-two participants who attended the Polyclinic Kulliyyah of Dentistry, IIUM Kuantan in 2022 for removable prosthesis fabrication were recruited. The participants were randomized into 2 groups: control (traditional chairside) and intervention (WhatsApp) group. Video intervention was sent via WhatsApp to the participants. Pretreatment and posttreatment questionnaires were distributed from March to September 2022 to survey their sociodemographic data, knowledge of denture care, and awareness of the effect of edentulism on general health. Data were obtained and checked for normality using the Shapiro-Wilk test. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon-Paired Signed-Rank tests (α=.05). ResultsEighty-two percent of participants favored WhatsApp as a tool for receiving information and used it daily (66.1%). The level of overall knowledge and awareness increased in groups after denture insertion instruction. Participants’ knowledge of denture care (P=.001) and awareness of the effect of edentulism on general health (P=.001) improved significantly in the WhatsApp intervention group compared with the control group. ConclusionsWhatsApp can be used as an alternative tool for improving denture care knowledge among denture wearers; increased awareness was observed with WhatsApp compared with the traditional chairside approach.
Published Version
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