Drilling Deeper into Toothbrushing Skills: is Proactive Interference an Under-Recognized Factor in Oral Hygiene Behavior Change?

Abstract

Proper toothbrushing is a seemingly simple motor activity that can promote oral health. Applying health theories, such as the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) model, motivational interviewing (MI), and integrative health coaching (IHC), may help optimize toothbrushing technique in those with sub-optimal skills. Some motor activities, including toothbrushing, may over time become rote and unconscious actions, such that an existing habit can inhibit new learning, i.e., exert proactive interference on learning the new skill. Proactive interference may impede the acquisition of new toothbrushing skills; thus, in this report, we (1) review how the habit of toothbrushing is formed, (2) postulate how proactive interference could impede the establishment of proper toothbrushing retraining, (3) discuss the merits of this hypothesis, and (4) provide guidance for future work in this topic within the context of an approach to behavior change that integrates IMB, MI, and IHC methodology.