Novel Manual Toothbrush Design Improves Plaque Removal Efficiency

Objectives: This clinical study was conducted to evaluate the plaque removal efficacy of a new manual toothbrush with novel brush head design compared to two marketed manual toothbrushes.
Methods: This study was a randomized, single-use, examiner-blind, 3-period crossover design, which examined plaque removal of three toothbrushes: a) newly designed Oral-B Clic (OBC), b) Oral-B CrossAction 720 (CA), and c) regular manual Oral-B Indicator 35 soft (IND). 24 subjects from a general adult population were randomized to one of six treatment sequences and completed the study. Subjects plaque was scored before (baseline) and after brushing using the Turesky Modified Quigley-Hein Index (TMQH). ANCOVA was used to analyze the post-brushing plaque with baseline scores as covariate.
Results: Baseline mean TMQH scores for whole mouth, buccal and lingual surfaces ranged between 2.50 and 2.81 for the three brushes and didn’t differ significantly (p≥0.53). The adjusted whole mouth mean plaque reduction (baseline minus post-brushing) was 1.59 (60% reduction vs. baseline) for the OBC, 1.45 (55%) for the CA, and 1.18 (44%) for the IND toothbrush. Analysis of covariance showed that the novel OBC brush provided statistically significantly higher plaque reductions than the IND brush (p<0.001) for whole mouth (+35%), buccal (+25%), and lingual surfaces (+53%). The CA brush did also provide statistically significantly higher plaque reductions compared to the IND brush (p≤0.015) in those regions (between +16% and +38%). The novel OBC and the CA brush did not differ statistically significant for whole mouth, buccal and lingual surfaces (p≥0.089), but plaque reductions were in general directionally higher in favor of the novel OBC brush.
Conclusions: The novel manual toothbrush was found to remove statistically significantly more plaque (whole mouth, buccal and lingual areas) compared to a regular manual toothbrush control.