A retrospective study of compliance (adherence) with a care pathway in periodontal therapy in a primary care setting

Recently the issue of patient adherence with prolonged periodontal therapy and the importance of smoking and its influence as a significant co-factor in the outcome of treatment for patients with periodontal disease has been of interest to health care professionals. This paper is an audit of adherence in regard to both smoking cessation for those who admitted to a smoking habit at the initial examination and patient compliance with a periodontal treatment protocol.

During the initial examination, patients referred to the practice with periodontal problems were photographed both with and without lip retractors as part of their clinical record, and a charting of the teeth made with any 5 mm or greater probing depths recorded. Tooth mobility and furcation involvement of molar teeth were also charted. Two separate time periods (Series 1 and Series 2) were audited in this study. Patients enrolled in Series 2 were routinely asked about their smoking habits at the initial examination. Two time periods were audited, as the initial purpose of the investigation was to audit the success of the practice in treating this group of patients, and to identify any improvements that could be made in care provision as each audit cycle was completed.

Primary care setting.

Patient adherence rates were high through all the various stages of periodontal therapy, even though the treatment protocol took over 18 months to complete. Approximately 55% of patients in both time periods presented for the one-year post treatment re-evaluation appointments. 56.5% of the patients reported they had smoked to within five years of their initial consultation, of which 38% reported that they had stopped by the time they had completed the initial hygiene phase of treatment.

With a comprehensive and clearly defined supportive periodontal care programme (SPC), this paper demonstrates that high adherence levels can be achieved in a primary care setting. The results suggest that treatment should include not only the teaching of an effective oral hygiene regime, but also include giving advice in relation to smoking cessation for those patients who admit to a smoking habit at the initial examination. Patients who smoked and chose to have treatment for their periodontal condition went on to report good adherence with smoking cessation advice. Continuing supportive smoking cessation (SSC) advice should be part of any effective SPC programme. New methods of treating periodontal disease that become available to practitioners in the future should use established benchmarks against which to evaluate the success of any new treatment strategy.