The use of QLF-D (quantitative light-induced fluorescence-digitalTM) as an oral hygiene evaluation tool to assess plaque accumulation and enamel demineralisation in orthodontics

摘要

Aim: To assess the use of the Quantitative Light-induced Fluorescence-Digital BiluminatorTM (QLF-DTM) as an oral hygiene evaluation tool to detect demineralisation and plaque during orthodontics Design: Randomised clinical trial Settings: Liverpool University Dental Hospital Subjects: 33 patients (21 females, 12 males) currently undergoing upper and lower fixed orthodontic appliance treatment were recruited. The median age of patients was 14.6 years with a range from 11.0 to 37.4 years. Methods: The patients were randomly allocated, stratified by the presence of demineralisation at baseline (T0), to receiving oral hygiene reinforcement (OHR) at four consecutive appointments (T1-T4) using the White light (WL) or Quantitative Light-induced Fluorescence (QLF) images, taken with the QLF-DTM device (Inspektor Research Systems BV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands), as visual aids. The standard of oral hygiene was assessed on the QLF images using customised software to provide quantitative scoring of fluorescence loss (ΔF) and plaque coverage (ΔR30) at each appointment. Inter-examiner reliability assessments were conducted by 4 examiners using QLF and WL images from 7 patients. One examiner assessed the images on a second occasion two weeks later to ascertain the intra-examiner reliability. A debriefing questionnaire, distributed on completion of the study, was used to ascertain the patients’ perspectives of the QLF-DTM images. Results: There were no significant differences in demineralisation (ΔF: P=0.56) or plaque accumulation (ΔR30; P=0.95) between the WL and QLF groups from T0 to T4. There were no significant reductions in ΔF in the WL or the QLF group from T0-T4 (P>0.05), however there was a significant reduction in ΔR30 (P