Specification and analysis of the effects of coping in research on the relationship between psychosocial stress and periodontal disease

Prevention and therapeutic approaches to gingival inflammation

The most important preventive and therapeutic effort to reduce inflammation is to remove the dental plaque thoroughly. Oral self-care is thus of crucial importance to achieve and maintain oral health. There is a scarcity of scientific evidence on the most effective models for behavioural change aimed to improve oral hygiene. There is a need for randomized-controlled trials, based on behavioural sciences and performed with great methodological rigour, to investigate the usefulness of these proposed behavioural changes. Oral hygiene regimens for patients with natural teeth as well as dental implants should include brushing twice daily, inter-dental cleaning once daily and rinsing with efficient rinses as an adjunct to mechanical infection control. Power toothbrushes are preferable as they are more effective than manual toothbrushes. Inter-dental brushes seem to be most effective and useful for inter-dental cleaning. Scaling and root planing is effective in reducing inflammation and probing depths in patients with periodontitis.

Immediate post-operative effects of different periodontal treatment modalities on oral health-related quality of life: a randomized clinical trial

AIM

Oral health-related quality of life (OHQoL) characterizes a person's perception of how oral health influences an individual's life quality. The aim of this study is to investigate how the treatment modalities may affect the immediate post-operative quality of life of patients with periodontitis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Sixty psychologically and socio-demographically matched periodontitis patients were randomly divided into three groups [20 non-surgical (NS), 20 surgical (SG), 20 surgical plus enamel matrix protein derivative (S+EMD)]. The OHQoL was assessed with two patient-centred outcome measures [Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14) and General Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI)] in the post-operative period of 1 week.

RESULTS

Whereas there were no differences of OHQoL at the baseline, the patients treated by surgery had reported that they had experienced a worse OHQoL compared with the NS and S+EMD groups both in the OHIP-14 and GOHA indexes (p=0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study clearly indicated that patient perceptions on the immediate post-operative period were significantly better in the NS and S+EMD groups when compared with the SG group. These findings need to be confirmed in further studies with larger populations.