A patient's home care is poor. What is the most effective approach to improving it?

Correct answer: D. Give individualised instruction and provide specific feedback on her performance

• A. More frequent professional care manages the consequences of poor home care without addressing its cause, and it removes her sense of agency in her own health.
• B. Written material supplements instruction but never replaces it. Passive information transfer has consistently poor effects on plaque scores.
• C. Fear-based education produces short-lived compliance at best and disengagement at worst. It also does not teach the manual skill she is actually missing.
• D. CORRECT. Behaviour change requires a FEEDBACK LOOP. Demonstrate the technique in her own mouth, watch her perform it, disclose the plaque so she can SEE what she missed, and give specific correction. Knowledge alone changes very little; guided practice with feedback changes behaviour.

Note: Disclosing solution is the single most useful tool here — it converts an abstraction into something visible in the mirror. Pair it with a plaque score recorded at each visit, so both of you can watch a number move. Progress that can be measured is progress the patient will sustain.