Digital health support in periodontal care

Dental Tribune International

Wed. 19. August 2026

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FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany: Digital tools are being explored to support behaviour change and effective oral hygiene, but evidence of their longer-term effectiveness is scarce. A new randomised controlled trial has investigated whether a prototype smartphone app designed to support patients throughout treatment could improve clinical outcomes when added to standard periodontal therapy. The findings offer new insight into the potential role and practical challenges of incorporating digital support into periodontal treatment.

The study was conducted across seven German university dental centres and randomised 194 adults with periodontitis to receive either standard periodontal care alone or the same care supplemented with the app. Its features included an oral hygiene diary, educational material tailored to the treatment phase, push notifications and a dashboard displaying the patient’s clinical information. Participants were followed through the treatment cycle for approximately 12 months.

Both groups demonstrated clinical improvement, but the analysis found no statistically significant difference between the intervention and control groups for gingival bleeding index. There were similarly no significant differences in plaque scores, bleeding on probing or the proportion of patients who reached a proposed treatment target of no more than four sites with probing depths of 5 mm or greater. Therefore, the trial did not demonstrate that the app provided an additional clinical benefit when combined with standard periodontal therapy.

However, the findings should not be interpreted as definitive evidence that digital support in general is ineffective. A 2025 randomised controlled trial of artificial intelligence-assisted at-home dental monitoring reported greater improvements in self-care behaviour, plaque control and periodontal outcomes compared with standard care. The two interventions differed substantially, suggesting that the design and delivery of digital support may influence its clinical effectiveness.

In the present trial, several app functions were not delivered or used consistently. Dashboard information was inconsistently updated across the study centres, engagement with notifications was limited and patients accessed only a small proportion of the available educational content. Furthermore, the baseline gingival bleeding index was already relatively low and fell further after periodontal therapy in both groups, leaving little room for the app to produce an additional improvement. In addition, fewer participants completed the study than planned, making it more difficult to distinguish small effects of the app from chance variation. Also, because all treatment was performed in university settings by dental students, the findings may not be generalisable to routine private practice.

An exploratory analysis found that moderate app users showed significantly greater reductions in plaque scores than low users. However, app use patterns differed substantially among the study centres, making it difficult to determine whether this finding reflected app engagement or other factors.

Overall, the study supports further investigation of this type of intervention. Future research should focus on reliable delivery of core app functions, sustained patient engagement and integration into periodontal treatment to determine whether such interventions can provide additional benefit beyond standard therapy.

The study, titled “Clinical outcomes of a digital companion in periodontal care: A randomised controlled trial”, was published online on 30 July 2026 in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology, ahead of final publication.