Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of a multi-session plaque control program in The Creighton Dental School Clinic. Fifty dental students and 105 clinic patients were scored by the Modified Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S) system prior to the program. The patients were again scored for plaque accumulation at the finish of instructions and at recall, while the students were scored only at recall. | The dental students had an initial mean score of 0.86 + 0.27 and a recall mean score of 0.38 + 0.28. The clinic patients had an initial mean score of 1.37 + 0.43. Their finish mean score of 0.77 + 0.33 remained essentially the same up to six months. All post-instruction scores were significantly different from initial scores. Comparison of dental student initial plaque score and clinic patient initial plaque score indicated that these two groups were significantly different from each other. | This study indicates that a multi-session plaque control program is effective and that this program is clinically useful.