Khan Muhammad Khalil, Khan Ayyaz Ali, Hosein Tasleem, Mudassir Abdul, Mirza Kamran Masood, Anwar Asim
Department of Periodontology, Fatima Jinnah Dental College, Karachi, Pakistan.
J Int Acad Periodontol. 2009 Jan;11(1):147-50.
Removing dental plaque may play a key role in maintaining oral health. Methods for oral hygiene vary from country to country and from culture to culture. Chewing sticks (miswak) and toothpowders are popular oral hygiene tools in Pakistan.
To compare the plaque-removing efficacy of toothpaste and toothpowder with and without manual toothbrushes.
The study was designed as an examiner-blind crossover study. The Silness and Löe plaque index was used to evaluate the plaque distribution. Thirty-six volunteer dental students were recruited for the experiment. After scoring, the subjects were randomly divided into two groups. The first group was asked to brush with toothpaste or toothpowder according to a split mouth protocol. The second group was asked to follow the same protocol except they were asked to use their finger instead of the brush. The remaining plaque was scored again.
Plaque-removing efficacy of the toothpowder was higher whether it was used with brush or with finger. There was a significant difference between paste and powder users (p = 0.009).
The results of this study indicate that toothpowder is an effective means to remove plaque with a brush.
去除牙菌斑可能在维持口腔健康方面发挥关键作用。口腔卫生方法因国家和文化而异。咀嚼棒（米斯瓦克）和牙粉是巴基斯坦流行的口腔卫生工具。
比较使用和不使用手动牙刷时牙膏和牙粉的除菌斑效果。
本研究设计为检查者盲法交叉研究。使用希尔尼斯和勒氏菌斑指数评估菌斑分布。招募了36名牙科专业学生志愿者参与实验。评分后，将受试者随机分为两组。第一组按照分口方案用牙膏或牙粉刷牙。第二组遵循相同方案，但要求用手指代替牙刷。再次对剩余菌斑进行评分。
无论与牙刷还是手指一起使用，牙粉的除菌斑效果都更高。使用牙膏和牙粉的人之间存在显著差异（p = 0.009）。
本研究结果表明牙粉是一种使用牙刷去除菌斑的有效方法。
