The Relative Effectiveness of Two Battery-Powered Toothbrushes

Background: The effectiveness of rotation-oscillation power toothbrushes is well established. Objectives: This clinical study was conducted to evaluate the plaque removal efficacy of a battery-powered toothbrush with a stand-alone rotation-oscillation head (single motion) compared to a battery-powered toothbrush with both translating and rotation-oscillation heads (dual motion). Methods: This study was a randomized, examiner-blind, 4-period crossover design, which examined plaque removal with the two toothbrushes following a repeated single use in 44 completed subjects. Plaque was scored before and after brushing using the Bastiaan Modification of the Quigley-Hein Index. Results: Baseline plaque scores were 3.45 for both the dual motion and single motion toothbrushes. With respect to all surfaces examined, the dual motion toothbrush delivered an adjusted (via analysis of covariance) mean difference between baseline and post-brushing plaque scores of 0.86 while the single motion toothbrush delivered an adjusted mean difference of 0.76. The dual motion toothbrush, on average, had a 13% larger plaque removal score than the single motion toothbrush. These results were statistically significant (p=0.007). Turesky Modification of Q-H scores were derived from Bastiaan scores as well. The derived Turesky baseline plaque scores were 2.07 for both the dual motion and single motion toothbrushes. With respect to all surfaces examined, the dual motion toothbrush delivered an adjusted (via analysis of covariance) mean difference between baseline and post-brushing plaque scores of 0.32 while the single motion toothbrush delivered an adjusted mean difference of 0.26. The dual motion toothbrush, on average, had a 24% larger plaque removal score than the single motion toothbrush. These results were statistically significant (p=0.002). Conclusion: The battery-powered toothbrush with both translating and rotation-oscillation heads (dual motion) was found to remove statistically significantly more plaque than the battery-powered toothbrush with a stand-alone rotation-oscillation head (single motion).