The plaque-removing efficacy of an oscillating/rotating toothbrush. A short-term study.

The purpose of the present study was to test the effectiveness of a new type of BRAUN electric toothbrush (D5) in comparison with the traditional BRAUN electric toothbrush (D3) and to a manual toothbrush (M). For this study, 60 dental students were selected who had no previous experience with the use of an electric toothbrush. The study consisted of 3 experiments. Prior to each experiment, all students were asked to abstain from all oral hygiene procedures for at least 24 h. In Exp I, the efficacy of toothbrushing was studied when one of the investigators brushed the teeth of the students. No toothpaste was used in this first part of the study. In Exp II, the efficacy of brushing was evaluated when the brushing was carried out by the students themselves. In Exp III, the efficacy of the brushing was studied after the students had received a professional instruction and oral prophylaxis. The available time for the brushing amounted to a total of 2 min per mouth. The amount of dental plaque was evaluated by means of the Silness and Löe plaque index at 6 sites around the tooth. Results showed in Exp I that both electric toothbrushes proved to remove significantly more plaque than the manual toothbrush (M 78%; D3 85%; D5 86%). In Exp II, no significant differences in plaque-removing efficacy were found between the 3 brushes (M 73%; D3 72%; D5 73%). In Exp III, the D5 proved to remove significantly more plaque than the other two brushes (M 77%; D3 77%; D5 83%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)