PATIENT COMPLIANCE WITH MAINTENANCE THERAPY IN AN ITALIAN PERIODONTALPRACTICE

A sample of 414 patients, treated between 1985 and 1988 by an Italian periodontal practice for supportive periodontal therapy, was studied t o determine compliance with recommended maintenance programmes. Patien ts included in the study had attended for supportive periodontal thera py for at least 1 year prior to the close of data collection in 1989. Based on their compliance with the suggested maintenance schedule, pat ients were classified as complete attending (100% of programmed visits ), partial (at least 50% of programmed visits), or insufficient (less than 50% of programmed visits). Only 30% of the initial patient sample was found to be compliant at the end of 1989. Complete compliance dec reased as the number of years after active therapy increased, from 38% at 1 year to 20% at 4 years. The % of patients with insufficient comp liance increased from 37% to 46% from the 1st to the 2nd year, then re mained stable over the following years, indicating that the 1st year r epresented the critical period when subjects decided whether to follow recommended maintenance therapy. No significant relationships were fo und between degree of compliance and patient gender, recall schedule o r type of treatment procedure performed. However, complete compliant s ubjects were younger than the other groups (P<0.03), and compliance in creased with the number of surgeries (p<0.002).