Clinical efficacy of a new sonic/ultrasonic toothbrush.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this clinical study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Ultra Sonex Ultima(R) in comparison with a conventional manual toothbrush.


METHODS
In all, 64 healthy volunteers (32 females, 32 males) took part in the parallel-design treatment-blind study. After a screening examination and stratification by age, sex and papillary bleeding index (PBI), the participants were randomly assigned to two groups with 32 subjects each. Four weeks later, the Turesky modification of the Quigley-Hein plaque index (PI), the approximal plaque index (API), and the PBI were recorded at baseline. Four and 8 weeks after baseline, the indices were recorded again.


RESULTS
During the study period of 8 weeks, the API showed no difference between the manual and the electric toothbrush. For the median PI, a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) was found after 4 (manual: 2.16 vs. electric: 1.34) and 8 weeks (1.96 vs. 0.92). After 4 weeks, the median PBI was 0.75 for the manual and 0.43 for the electric brush (p < 0.01). The values after 8 weeks were 0.63 (manual) and 0.29 (electric, p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
The Ultra Sonex Ultima may be more efficacious than manual toothbrushes in removing plaque and preventing gingivitis in patients without severe periodontal disease.
Zimmer
Stefan
S
Charité, Humboldt-University Berlin, School of Dentistry, Department of Operative and Preventive Dentistry and Endodontics, Berlin, Germany. stefan.zimmer@charite.de
Nezhat
Vida
V
Bizhang
Mozhgan
M
Seemann
Rainer
R
Barthel
Claudia
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003773:Dental Plaque / Q000628:therapy; D003774:Dental Plaque Index; D004560:Electricity; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005891:Gingivitis / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010512:Periodontal Index; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014099:Toothbrushing / Q000295:instrumentation*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014465:Ultrasonics