Effect of motivational interviewing on preventive strategies for children receiving full-mouth dental rehabilitation under general anesthesia: A randomized controlled trial.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Motivational interviewing (MI) is an approach to increase parental compliance to follow up and recall of their children. It has proven to be successful in motivating parents to adopt and maintain preventive child oral health behaviors. AIM: To assess the effectiveness of motivational interviewing on prevention strategies for parents of children who have received full-mouth dental rehabilitation under general anesthesia (GA). DESIGN: This is a parallel-arm randomized controlled trial. Parents in the treatment arm were randomized and received a combination of motivational interviewing, individualized goal setting, visual aids, and verbal education post-GA. Those in the control arm received the same information by verbal and written education. Both groups were evaluated at 2-week follow-up and 3-month recall. Differences in attendance, oral health knowledge, readiness to change, and parental self-efficacy (PSE) were compared between groups and at return visits. RESULTS: Of 74 parents of children randomly allocated in this study, 22 (61%) and 13 (38%) from the intervention group, and 21 (55%) and 16 (46%) from the control group attended the 2-week, and 3-month follow-up, respectively. The average PSE for participants in the intervention group was significantly higher than that of the control group at the follow-up visit (p = .0050). CONCLUSION: Readiness to change dietary habits and average PSE for parents in the intervention group were significantly higher than that of the control group after receiving the modified preventive strategy.