Just when you thought selfies are only good for boosting one’s self-esteem, researchers reveal that they may also lead to better oral health care. A new study says filming video selfies of yourself while tooth brushing can assist in developing your oral health care habits.
Despite the belief that there is a growing population ignoring oral health care, there are still some people who actually want to improve their habits. However, they only have few opportunities to do so, besides visiting their dentist at eaglecreekgentledentist.com.
Behind the New Discovery
According to Lance T. Vernon, a senior instructor at case.edu, it is typical for tooth brushing to be learned without any proper guidance. He says altering tooth brushing habits, that are already deep-rooted behaviors linked to muscle memory, will take a lot of supervision and time.
The study recommends that people record themselves brushing and get professional advice from their dentists afterward. The research offers a promising future in the dental industry, but their main point was to demonstrate how essential the concept of selfies is.
Even in other medical fields, picture and video selfies are utilized to examine, observe, and identify the development of illnesses and the effectiveness of the treatment. Vernon refers to this new style of information gathering as mHealth or mobile health.
The Gargling New Study
The researchers asked participants to position their smartphones on stands and record themselves brushing their teeth. The dentists then corrected their bad habits and asked them to film it again. Overall, they were able to view the accuracy and number of brush strokes. It led to an eight percent improvement after learning new tooth brushing skills. Yet, the duration did not change.
The coauthor says the study is in its primary stage, as this is the very first research done on selfies and tooth brushing habits. He sees it as a promising beginning to forming new mHealth tactics for dentists to help their patients prevent bad habits instead of fixing it once it happens.