The effectiveness of educational interventions in oral health: a literature review

Abstract Educational interventions have been proposed and evaluated in order to reduce the negative impacts of oral health outcomes. However, the effectiveness of the initiatives published from 2004 has not been scientifically scrutinized yet. This study aimed to review the literature on educational interventions and estimate their impacts on oral health outcomes. A literature review, using a search query with free and controlled terms, was carried out in Medline via PubMed, to identify educational interventions published between 2003-2013. The original results were analyzed and qualitatively summarized. In the 37 studies reviewed, it was observed that educational interventions tended to produce inconsistent short term clinical results, including dental plaque reduction (best result [BR] -88.9%; worst result [WR] +29.7%), reduced gingival bleeding (BR -77.8%; WR +72.2%), reduced dental caries (BR -39.5%; WR +961.1%) and reduced dental calculus (+16.2%). In turn, there was a greater reduction in the outcomes evaluated, when participants received intensive clinical monitoring, suggesting that this is an important aspect of the interventions. Similarly to previous literature reviews, this study showed that educational interventions aimed at preventing, controlling or reducing oral diseases are not consistent.