Oscillating/rotating electric toothbrushes compared: plaque removal and gingival abrasion.
OBJECTIVE
This study was designed to test the efficacy in plaque removal and the potential for gingival abrasion of 3 electric toothbrushes. The established Braun Oral-B 'Ultra' plaque remover (D9), the Philips/Jordan HP 735, and the newly designed Braun Oral-B 3D Plaque Remover (3D).


METHODS
This study was designed as a split-mouth, single blind, randomised clinical study consisting of 3 identical experiments with 3 combinations of toothbrushes (exp 1:3D-HP735, exp 2:D9-HP735, exp 3:D9-3D). 40 subjects were requested not to brush their teeth 48 h prior to each examination. At this visit, both the gums and teeth were disclosed for the assessment of baseline plaque and gingival abrasion. Abrasion sites were scored as small (< or = 5 mm) or large sites (> 5 mm). Plaque was assessed according to the Quigley & Hein index at 6 sites per tooth. The participants brushed 60 s with the 2 brushes, each brush in 2 randomly selected contra-lateral quadrants.


RESULTS
The increase in number of small abrasions after brushing (exp. 1) was 1.2 versus 1.7 for 3D and HP735, respectively (ns); In exp. 2 the increase was 0.9 for both D9 and HP735. In exp. 3 the increase was 0.4 sites for both D9 and 3D. Comparison of the 3D and HP735 showed a mean plaque reduction of 67% and 54%, respectively (p<0.05); when the D9 and HP735 were compared, a mean plaque reduction of 70% and 58%, respectively, was found (p<0.05); a mean plaque reduction of 74% was found in the comparison of D9 and 3D.


CONCLUSIONS
The results show that the potential gingival abrasion after brushing is comparable for all 3 electric toothbrushes. In addition the longer the subjects used the brushes the less abrasion occurred. Finally both 3D and D9 were more effective than the HP735 in removing plaque.
van der Weijden
G A
GA
Department of Periodontology, ACTA, Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam, The Netherlands. ga.vd.weijden@acta.nl
Timmerman
M F
MF
Piscaer
M
M
Ijzerman
Y
Y
van der Velden
U
U
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003773:Dental Plaque / Q000628:therapy*; D003774:Dental Plaque Index; D004560:Electricity; D004848:Epithelium / Q000293:injuries / Q000473:pathology; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005881:Gingiva / Q000293:injuries* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012399:Rotation; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014099:Toothbrushing / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation*