APPLICATION OF MENTAL PRACTICE IN MOTOR LEARNING OF BRUSHING ON PEOPLE WITH PARKINSON

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by dopaminergic neurons degeneration of the substantia nigra, in the midbrain, resulting in the presence of motor disorders, such as tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, and postural instability. Researches have shown that mental rehearsal in learning motor skills through mental practice (MP), which associates the physical practice to somatosensory imagination to action, causes positive effects in several motor tasks, such as the speed of motion, muscle strength performance and accuracy. Thus, this study aims to report the effects of MP as a tooth brushing training strategy in people with Parkinson's disease. This project was approved by the Ethics Committee in Research with Human beings of UFPE and attempt to compare the presence of bacterial biofilm before and after 8 weeks of brushing through the mental practice training, based on O'Leary's index. The sample consisted of 35 people, divided into two groups: Intervention Group consists of 17 people with Parkinson's, in stages I to III of the disease, who underwent brushing orientation associated with PM, and the control group people without the disease, who received only orientation brushing. Then, the data were evaluated by factorial ANOVA 2x2 and post hoc Tukey test considering p <0.05. It was observed that after the intervention was a significant improvement of the control dental biofilm.