Has small-scale audio-visual dental health education a viable future?

The achievement of an adequate oral hygiene status in large groups of people remains an unfulfilled objective of the dental profession. In this study an attempt was made to motivate 180 pregnant women by showing them a tape-slide program. The subjects were randomly allocated into four statistically equal experimental groups. Two examiners, who were calibrated before commencement of the survey, measured Gingival and Plaque Indices of each subject and a questionnaire was used to assess the educational potential of the tape-slide sequence over a period of 4 weeks. There was a 100% incidence of gingivitis in the study population. Those women who viewed the tape-slide program in addition to being dentally examined, achieved the greatest reduction in their GI and retained the most information. The tape-slide sequence alone did not initiate a satisfactory degree of behavioral change; similar studies have also had discouraging results and it would appear that individual attention and motivation is the only sure way to date of achieving adequate personal plaque control.