Metrics details. The present research aimed to develop and validate a standardised survey instrument for the assessment of patients' awareness of the quality of their oral hygiene performance. All study groups accepted the questionnaire well; average answering times were less than 5 min. The comparison between SPOC d scores and actual oral cleanliness indicate that they considerably overestimate their oral hygiene performance.
The results of the questionnaire may help to reveal unrealistic self-perceptions of patients regarding their oral hygiene. Trial registration The third study was an interventional study and was registered in the appropriate national register www.
Peer Review reports. Dental plaque is a major cause of oral diseases such as gingivitis and periodontitis [ 1 ].
The prevention of these diseases strongly relies on effective plaque control by means of self-performed oral hygiene [ 2 , 3 ]. A growing part of the population seems to understand this. In recent decades, tooth brushing has become a very well-established preventive health behaviour in many regions of the world [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ].
Today, it may even be the most common and consistently practised health behaviour of all. This is a remarkable success of all efforts aimed at improving oral health behaviour at the population level in recent decades [ 12 ]. Nevertheless, the rates of gingivitis and periodontitis remain high [ 13 ]. In doing so, they follow current recommendations [ 14 ]. However, they apparently do not gain sufficient control over gingivitis and periodontitis. From a public health perspective, this causes concern about the effectiveness of campaigns focused on self-performed oral hygiene [ 12 ].
