Clinical study of comparative plaque removal performance of two manual toothbrushes

A clinical study was performed to evaluate and compare plaque removal performance of the two commercially available products; the Colgate Precision Full Head Soft toothbrush and Reach Full Head soft toothbrush. Twenty high school students, male and female subjects participated, each refraining from toothbrushing for 24 hours. Plaque was scored according to the Personal Hygiene Performance (PHP) Index of Podshadley and Haley, as modified by Martens and Meskin. Following screening, the subjects were divided into two balanced groups on the basis of initial plaque scores. At Visit 1, each group having refrained from toothbrushing for 24 hours, was evaluated for plaque before brushing for 60 seconds with the assigned toothbrush, after which plaque was again scored. At Visit 2, one week later, the same procedure was followed. Subjects were instructed to resume their normal routine and return to the clinical site for Visit 2. On completion of the study, the data collected were subjected to statistical analysis which indicated that the Colgate Precision Full Head soft toothbrush removed significantly more plaque than Reach Full Head soft toothbrush.