Oscillating/rotating electric toothbrushes compared: plaque removal and gingival abrasion

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).

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.

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.

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.