The Impact of Simple Home-based Differential Learning on Oral Hygiene in Children: A Single-blind Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

This two-parallel arm single-blind randomized controlled clinical trial will be undertaken at the Department of Preventive and Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Greifswald. The examination of the patient will be undertaken in a dental chair set up using standard infection control guidelines for a dental examination used at the department. The allocation of the patients to the two groups will be done through asking the patients to pick up an envelope randomly from a box which contains the information and explanation for home brushing.

In the first visit, the baseline dental examination and patient acceptance survey will be done to comprehensively assess each participant's oral health status, their oral hygiene status, caries experience and periodontal condition will be recorded.

To assess oral hygiene status we will use plaque index (PI) (Quigley Hein, 1972) on a scale of 0 to 5. Dental caries experience will be recorded by counting the numbers of teeth that are decayed (dt/DT), missing due to caries (mt/MT), and filled (ft/FT) to generate a dmft/DMFT score. Periodontal condition will be recorded using the papillary bleeding index Index (PBI) on a scale of 0 to 4. One trained and calibrated examiner will perform the clinical examinations.

The study and its objectives will be explained to the patients. For the control group, regular instructions and advice will be provided as in any regular prophylaxis session.

For the test group, the exercises and movements to be performed when brushing the teeth will be explained. The patients in both groups will be also provided with explanation leaflet with the exercises and a free toothbrush. There will be no restriction on the type of the fluoridated toothpaste.