Supportive periodontal therapy in South America. A retrospective multi-practice study on compliance

Background: Supportive periodontal therapy is needed for the success of periodontal therapy but there is little information about the extent of patient cooperation. It is known, however, that cooperation is poor and a matter of concern. Methods: The present study is part of a more extensive study including information from 5,041 patient records from private periodontal practices in Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, and Argentina. Patient cooperation was measured according to gender, age, type of therapy (surgical or non-surgical), maintenance period (first year, 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, and 20 years), and level of cooperation (non-compliant, regular or irregular) for each of the 4 practices. Results: We observed a great variation in the behavior of the patients from different practices, suggesting that studies on compliance cannot be generalized because differences in culture, economic conditions, knowledge of oral hygiene, and even the philosophy of treatment should be considered. The most significant data were sometimes similar for 2 or 3 of the countries but never for all 4 practices. Conclusions: Compliance is a very complex matter and findings from individual studies cannot be generalized.