The impact of structured plaque control for patients with gingival manifestations of oral lichen planus: a randomized controlled study

Aim To evaluate the impact of a structured plaque control intervention on clinical and patient-centred outcomes for patients with gingival manifestations of oral lichen planus. Materials and Methods Eighty-two patients were recruited into a 20-week randomized controlled trial. The intervention was structured plaque control comprising powered tooth brushing and inter-dental cleaning advice. Control subjects continued with their normal dental plaque control regimen. The primary outcome measure was the oral health impact profile (OHIP) with secondary outcomes of pain, plaque index, mucosal disease score and cost-effectiveness. Results Overall, the intervention patients showed statistically significant improvements in OHIP sum ordinal and OHIP dichotomous scores compared with control. There were improvements in the functional limitation, psychological discomfort and physical disability domains at 4- and 20-weeks and in the psychological disability domain at 20-weeks. The intervention was successful in reducing plaque compared to control (p < 0.001) and improvements were observed using the mucosal disease indices at the 4- and 20-week follow-ups (p < 0.001). Conclusion A structured plaque control intervention was effective in improving the oral health-related quality of life and clinically observed gingival lesions. This study provides evidence to include intensive plaque control within patients’ initial and on-going management.