Plaque Removal Efficacy of Two Different Toothbrushes: Sonic Versus Manual Devices

Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare the plaque removal efficacy of two different toothbrushes in a population not familiar with sonic technology. The null-hypothesis (H0) was that sonic toothbrush is able to remove a superior amount of plaque compared to the manual one.
Methods: 40 young adult patients were enrolled for the study. A single-cohort crossover clinical trial was designed. For each patient, three appointments were scheduled: the first one (T0) was used for oral care education and for a professional hygiene session; at one week (T1), plaque evaluation was performed (Turesky modification of the Quigley and Hein index) at baseline and after asking patients to brush with the randomly selected manual or sonic device. At the last appointment (week 3, T2), the same plaque evaluations of T1 were repeated asking patients to brush with the other toothbrush. Entire mouth indexes were calculated and mean reductions in whole mouth plaque scores were obtained (pre-brushing minus post-brushing values) for the two tested toothbrushes. Multiple ANOVA tests (p=0.05 ) were used to compare plaque levels between male and female subjects at baseline and post-brushing and to differentiate between mean reductions in whole mouth plaque scores according to the type of toothbrush (manual Vs sonic).
Results: Full-mouth plaque levels were reduced at post-brushing sessions by approximately 62% (p<0,0001). Mean plaque index reductions for manual and sonic toothbrush were of 1,05 ± 0,22 and 1,19 ± 0,37, respectively. A statistically significant difference was found between the two devices (p=0,0342). The powered sonic toothbrush removed about 10% more plaque than the manual one.
Conclusions: Within the limitations of the study, in subjects without any previous experience of a similar technology, the single use of the sonic toothbrush showed superior reduction in plaque compared to the manual traditional toothbrush (H0 accepted).