Conscious hypnosis as a method for patient motivation in cervical headgear wear--a pilot study

The aim of the present study was to assess the efficiency of conscious hypnosis on patient cooperation. The subjects were 30 patients (14 females and 16 males) with a skeletal Class II division 1 malocclusion, divided into two equal groups, a control and a study group. The mean age was 10.78 +/- 1.06 years for the hypnosis, and 10.07 +/- 1.09 years for the control group. Both groups were treated with cervical headgear containing a timer module. The patients were also asked to record their actual wear time on timetables. The hypnosis group patients were motivated with conscious hypnosis while the control group were given verbal motivation by their orthodontist. The timer modules were read at every visit and compared with the timetables. Analysis of variance was used to determine the differences in measurements at each time point. For comparison of the groups, an independent t-test was used. A statistically significant decrease (P < 0.05) in headgear wear was observed in the control group from the first to the sixth month; however, the difference in the hypnosis group was not significant. This result indicates that conscious hypnosis is an effective method for improving orthodontic patient cooperation. There was a low correlation between actual headgear wear indicated by the patient and that recorded by the timing modules, which showed that, timetables are not consistent tools for measuring patient cooperation.