Ortodontik tedavi gören hastalarda akıllı telefon uygulamasının ağız hijyeni motivasyonuna ve ağız sağlığına etkisi

Aim: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a smartphone application developed to improve oral hygiene and hygiene motivation among patients undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment compared to the hygiene motivation with traditional verbal expression. Materials and Methods: Our study included 50 patients aged 14 to 22 years, with skeletal or dental Class I, Class II malocclusion, complete permanent dentition and using smartphones. The patients were divided into the mobile group that used the smartphone application named "iTeeth Orthodontics" and the control group that was given verbal hygiene motivation without using application. Intraoral clinical photographs were taken after staining upper right and left second premolar teeth, canine teeth and central incisor teeth with a plaque staining tablet at the 10th day (T0), 1st month (T1), 2nd month (T2) and 3rd month (T3) of the fixed orthodontic treatment. Percentages of stained areas containing the plaques were measured. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine whether the distribution of continuous variables was normal, and the homogeneity of variances was investigated with the Levene test. Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance (Repeated Measures ANOVA) was used for the evaluation and comparison of measurements in 4 different time periods for 2 groups. Results: When the plaque percentages of all teeth examined in our study were compared according to the groups and time periods, no statistically significant difference was found (P>0.05). When the plaque percentages of all teeth examined in the control group were compared according to the time periods, significant differences were found in the plaque percentages between the time periods T0–T1, T0–T2, T0–T3, T1–T2 and T2–T3 (P<0.05). When the plaque percentages of all teeth examined in the mobile group were compared according to the time periods, a significant difference was observed between the plaque percentages only in the time period between T0 and T1 (P=0.018). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the use of smartphone application in providing oral hygiene motivation of patients receiving fixed orthodontic treatment was more successful in a shorter time period from the beginning of treatment compared to motivation with verbal expression. Keywords: Orthodontic treatment, oral hygiene, smartphone app