Comparison of 2 electric toothbrushes in plaque-removing ability. Professional and supervised brushing

The purpose of the present study was to compare the Braun Plak Control (D7) and Philips HP 500 (MM) in their plaque removing efficacy. Furthermore the brushing force applied by the panelist on the brush-head with both these brushes was evaluated. For this study, 35 university students (non-dental) were selected. The study consisted of 3 experiments. Prior to each experiment, all subjects were asked to abstain from all oral hygiene procedures for at least 48 h. In Exp. I, the efficacy of toothbrushing was studied when one of the investigators brushed the teeth of the panellists. In Exp. II, the efficacy of the brushing was studied after the students had received a professional instruction. In Exp. III, the brushing force used during a single brushing exercise was evaluated. The available time for the brushing amounted to a total of 2 min per mouth. Dental plaque was evaluated by means of the Silness and Löe and Quigley and Hein plaque indices assessed at 6 sites per tooth. Results showed that both in Exp. I and Exp. II, the D7 removed significantly more plaque than the MM electric toothbrush. The plaque reduction assessed according to Silness and Löe in Exp. I was for the D7, 1.07 and for the MM, 0.78. In Exp. II, the reduction was 1.08 and 0.88, respectively. The results of Exp. III show that the mean brushing force was comparable for both brushes (D7 = 173 g, MM = 175 g). All 35 subjects were allowed to choose one electric toothbrush as compensation for their participation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)