Oral Hygiene and Orthodontia: What Kind of Approach?

The objective was to determine to what extent the attachment of fixed orthodontic appliance enables oral hygiene in the patient and to summarize possible risks ensuing from insufficient oral hygiene and their impact on hard and soft tissues of oral cavity as well as methods and hygienic agents useful for the patient. The patients were followed up as far as the oral hygiene and gingival bleeding were concerned using modified PBI and API indices, respectively and the Ortho-plaque index. Higher gingival bleeding was associated with attachment of the fixed appliance in all appliance and there was also a higher accumulation of dental plaque on the contact gingival surfaces with the preparation. Likewise, some parts of the appliance resulted in deterioration (mPBI increased by 13.3 points on the average and OPI increased by 10.6%). Three months after the removal of the appliance the mPBI values returned to the level before therapy in 17% of patients, and improvement was observed in 61% of patients. The mAPI values returned to the level before therapy in 22 and in 72% there were lower values.