Influence of WhatsApp and electronic mail reminders on oral hygiene compliance of orthodontic patients using planimetry : Arandomized clinical trial.

Abstract

To determine the effect of WhatsApp (Facebook Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA) and electronic mail reminders on oral hygiene compliance of orthodontic patients. Arandomized, parallel group, double blinded study was conducted on 54patients undergoing orthodontic treatment at auniversity clinic. They were randomized to 3groups, i.e., WhatsApp(W) group, electronic mail (email)(E) group and control(C) group with 18subjects in each group. Group(W) and group(E) received oral health messages once aweek through WhatsApp and email reminders, respectively, while group(C) did not receive any reminders. Plaque was measured at baseline (T0), after 4weeks (T1), and after 8weeks (T2). For each subject, intraoral photographs were taken after application of aplaque-disclosing agent; and the area covered by plaque was measured on teeth12, 13, 43, 22, 23 and33 by planimetry. Data were analyzed using SPSS (version22, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare plaque scores between and within the groups. Atotal of 54subjects (14males and 40females) with mean age of 22.43 years completed the study. At the end of 8weeks, no statistically significant difference in the mean plaque score was found between the groups at the different time intervals (p = 0.201). WhatsApp and email reminders did not significantly influence the oral hygiene compliance of orthodontic patients.