Dental hygiene remains one of the crucial parts of self-care due to its impact on the overall health status. Apart from allowing the prevention of dental issues such as cavities and gum disease, it helps avoid a range of health issues observed within other body systems, including cardiovascular and respiratory ones (Oh et al., 2022). Among some of the most effective innovative solutions for dental hygiene, guided biofilm therapy (GBT) should eb included into the range of options along with the traditional self-care options. Due to its focus on patient education along with the introduction of an innovative solution for tooth decay prevention, GBT must be seen as a crucial dental hygiene strategy.
Relevance
The current approach toward promoting dental hygiene can be considered insufficiently effective since dental health concern and problems maintaining dental hygiene have become prevalent among general audiences. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2023), 13.2% of children, 25.9% of young adults, and 25.3% of older adults suffer from untreated dental issues, mostly caries. Being a direct effect of poor dental hygiene, the specified outcome could be addressed by introducing the innovative solution of GBT (Shrivastava et al., 2021). However, due to the lack of awareness regarding the subject matter among general audiences and the absence of patient education guidelines for dental nurses and other healthcare experts, GBT remains an obscure concept. By promoting the subject matter to the broader audience, one will be able to address the current concerns regarding dental health. This study seeks to answer the questions of what the advantages and disadvantages of GBT are and how it can be integrated into the current dental care framework.
The development of dental biofilm is known to have a profoundly detrimental effect on teeth. The accumulation of biofilm, also known as the dental plaque, implies the emergence and active development of oral microbiome on teeth (Scannapieco & Dongari‐Bagtzoglou, 2021). The consistent presence of tooth-borne microbial biofilms in a patient’s mouth is likely to entail dental health issues such as gingivitis and periodontitis (Scannapieco & Dongari‐Bagtzoglou, 2021). The described health issues are caused by the commensal microbiota, particularly, viruses and fungi, since they affect the levels of pH in a patient’s mouth and, therefore, contribute to the emergence of pathogens within the specified area (Scannapieco & Dongari‐Bagtzoglou, 2021). When left uncontrolled, the specified process leads to the emerging bacteria and fungi being transferred to the gastrointestinal system, the bloodstream, and the further parts of the patient’s body, causing massive adverse effects.
PICO
In adult patients (P), does the introduction of GBT (I) allow for improved dental hygiene outcomes (O) compared to the traditional methods of raising patient awareness and maintaining dental hygiene (C)?
Results of Literature
Apart from the direct negative effect that biofilm development has on the patient body, the absence of proper health awareness and the relevant skills for maintaining oral hygiene in most patients exacerbates the concern. As a result, the number and extent of health risks increases exponentially (Shrivastava et al., 2021). The integration of GBT as a combination of patient education and active promotion of innovative dental health solutions should be regarded as a vital strategy in addressing the problem of poor dental health literacy and the risks of biofilm development. GBT is defined as the “new regimen where there is a sequential removal of plaque and calculus by initially detecting it with a disclosing agent followed by the usage of air abrasive powder for the removal of plaque and stains” (Shrivastava et al., 2021, p. 1969). The proposed framework is expected to produce better outcomes compared to traditional methods of biofilm removal since it introduces consistency in managing dental health (Shrivastava et al., 2021). Therefore, GBT should eb seen as an important framework for addressing the outlined concern. The study by Shrivastava et al., (2021) supporting the specified solution can be considered as credible and viable as source of reference for supporting the introduction of GBT, having a sufficiently robust methodological framework and a substantial sample size representative of the target population.
Typically, GBT consists of eight steps that allow identifying the extent of the problem, determining the intensity of the required procedure, implementing it in a controlled manner, and evaluating the outcomes to introduce consistency. As Figure 1 below demonstrates, the proposed solution allows patients to benefit from the consistency and the cyclical nature of the dental healthcare framework (Shrivastava et al., 2021). As a result, the efficacy of care remains high due to the active reiteration of key steps and the emphasis on preventing biofilm development.
The integration of GBT has been proven to lead to significant improvements in patient dental health, primarily, due to the cyclical nature of care and the focus on patient education. Specifically, the study by Shrivastava et al. (2021) reports that the GBT integration into dental care contributes to active prevention of caries and similar health concerns (Shrivastava et al., 2021). The credibility of the specified research results can be confirmed by high levels of external and internal validity of the research (Shrivastava et al., 2021). Therefore, the incorporation of the proposed technique can be considered an essential addition to the existing framework.
In addition, the proposed approach creates ample possibilities for the further promotion of patient education regarding dental care and oral hygiene. Namely, the recurrent nature of the specified approach to dental care coupled with the active focus on nurse-patient communication opens a plethora of options for educating patients and instructing them on the use of proper dental self-care solutions. The research conducted on the subject matter has not revealed any major biases what could potentially lead to questioning the veracity and legitimacy of the outcomes. While the sample size might be regarded as slightly small in some studies, and the approach to sampling could be regarded as not fully representative of the entire range of the target audience, the overall conclusions are strong., furthermore, the provided insights into the integration of GBT into dental hygiene can be extrapolated onto other types of demographic and clinical contexts, which makes the specified research particularly important.
The opportunity to prevent dental biofilm from forming and affecting the teeth, the digestive system, and other systems of the body is central to ensuring patients’ well-being., Studies demonstrate that the failure to introduce an effective framework for preventing biofilm from developing lead to drastic consequences (Scannapieco & Dongari‐Bagtzoglou, 2021). In addition to common issues such as caries, gingivitis, and periodontitis, the emergence of biofilm and the progression of microbiome’s impact on the patient’s oral cavity is likely to cause a personalized pathology that will take a substantial time to identify and address accordingly due to the unique nature of each health issue, such as dysbiosis chronic disease (Scannapieco & Dongari‐Bagtzoglou, 2021). Therefore, the incorporation of the GBT technique, which allows not only removing the plaque from the patient’s mouth but also preventing its further formation, should be interpreted as the most effective solution. Specifically, the GBT framework should be integrated into the current dental health management approach and supported by active patient education. Represented by a strong methodological framework, the study that supports the specified solution should be seen as highly credible and, therefore, worth being integrated into the range of evidence concerning the effects of GBT on dental hygiene and dental health.
The opportunity to incorporate innovative technological solutions into the process of improving dental hygiene in patients is another undeniable advantage of the GBT approach. Specifically, the research by Vouros et al. (2022) states that GBT creates premises for incorporating ultrasonic piezo instrumentation, which has proven to produce an especially positive effect on the quality of biofilm removal. The study in question has been published in a peer-reviewed journal and features a credible methodology, which confirms the legitimacy of the assumptions made by tits authors. Though the paper by Vouros et al. (2021) could be criticized for its comparatively low sample size (24 and 26 participants in groups A and B correspondingly), the overall credibility of the study results should be regarded as high due to the effective methodological framework.
Finally, one must mention that the integration of the GBT approach allows minimizing the effects of biofilm development on the performance of other systems within the patient’s body. Indeed, studies confirm that the presence and active development of microbiota in a patient’s mouth, particularly, on the teeth and in dental cavities, causes the emergence of opportunistic pathogens (Oh et al., 2022; Tzoutzas et al., 2022). The research under analysis also deserves thorough consideration due to the thoroughness of the methodological approach and the credibility and significance of the results.
Given the current plethora of evidence concerning the efficacy and legitimacy of applying the GBT framework as an approach for improving dental hygiene in general audiences, the proposed tool must be actively incorporated into the current dental health framework. Coupled with patient education on the issue of maintaining dental health, performing the necessary self-care procedures, and addressing dental health experts regularly, the proposed solution will lad to a significant improvement in dental hygiene rates. Consequently, other health issues typically caused by poor dental hygiene, such as gastrointestinal concerns, will be successfully avoided. Therefore, the integration of the proposed GBT framework into the existing strategies for managing dental health and dental hygiene must be seen as a necessity.
Conclusion
Since GBT combines an innovative approach to preventing tooth decay with the help of a combination of patient education and innovative solutions in the form of a single-cell-organism protection, it should be actively promoted. The specified approach has been proven to produce an exceptionally positive impact on patients and lead to a fast improvement in both dental health and the overall health rate in patients. With the focus on active patient-nurse communication and the promotion of dental health literacy in the target population. GBT will become an incredibly effective tool for tooth decay and gum disease prevention for patients of all ages.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). Oral and Dental Health. CDC.gov. Web.
Oh, M. J., Babeer, A., Liu, Y., Ren, Z., Wu, J., Issadore, D. A., Stebe, K. J., Lee, D., Stiger, E., & Koo, H. (2022). Surface topography-adaptive robotic superstructures for biofilm removal and pathogen detection on human teeth. ACS nano, 16(8), 11998-12012. Web.
Scannapieco, F. A., & Dongari‐Bagtzoglou, A. (2021). Dysbiosis revisited: Understanding the role of the oral microbiome in the pathogenesis of gingivitis and periodontitis: A critical assessment. Journal of periodontology, 92(8), 1071-1078. Web.
Shrivastava, D., Natoli, V., Srivastava, K. C., Alzoubi, I. A., Nagy, A. I., Hamza, M. O., Al-Johani, K., Alam, M. K., & Khurshid, Z. (2021). Novel approach to dental biofilm management through guided biofilm therapy (GBT): a review. Microorganisms, 9(9), 1966-1982. Web.
Tzoutzas, I., Karoussis, I., & Maltezou, H. C. (2022). Air quality in dental care facilities: Update to current management and control strategies implementing new technologies: A comprehensive review. Vaccines, 10(6), 847. Web.
Vouros, I., Antonoglou, G. N., Anoixiadou, S., & Kalfas, S. (2022). A novel biofilm removal approach (Guided Biofilm Therapy) utilizing erythritol air‐polishing and ultrasonic piezo instrumentation: A randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Dental Hygiene, 20(2), 381-390. Web.