Effectiveness of different parenting interventions on oral hygiene of cerebral palsy children: A randomized controlled trial

AIM: To assess the effectiveness of different parenting interventions for improving oral hygiene of cerebral palsy (CP) children aged 4-12 years. METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS: A randomized controlled trial was done among 60 CP children and parents visiting a tertiary care center in New Delhi. The study population was randomly assigned to experimental or control group (30 in each group). Parents/caregivers in the experimental group (Group 1) received video-based dental health education (DHE) and the control group (Group 2) received conventional DHE. Each group also received two telephonic reinforcements at fourth and eighth week after the first intervention at baseline. The groups were assessed for sociodemographic, familial factors, medical history, oral hygiene practices, and oral hygiene status. At 3-month follow-up, the mean reduction in simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S), plaque index (PI), and gingival index (GI) scores was 0.27, 0.17, and 0.09, respectively, in Group 1 (P-value < .05). The mean reductions seen in Group 2 were 0.03 in OHI-S, 0.14 in PI, and 0.04 in GI index (P-value < .05, except for GI score: P-value = .6). CONCLUSION: Video-based DHE is effective and brings about significant improvement in oral hygiene status and oral health among CP children.