Methods: Five units of each manufacturer (A: Baby – Dental Prev, B: Colgate Baby Barney – Colgate Palmolive, C: Baby MAM, D: Stages 1 – Oral B, E: Stages 2 – Oral B, F: Crest Kids – Proctor & Gamble, E: Special Care Baby – TePe), totaling up thirty five brushes which were submitted to 10000 cycles in a brushing machine (approximately to 12 months of use). The simulation was performed over a device with three primary teeth (Tooth Bank) fixed with acrylic resin attached to the machine. The toothbrushes had its final condition evaluated by means of photographs of the bottom which were classified by three examiners in scores from 0 to 3 according to the scale proposed by Rawls et al. (1989).
Results: The results were submitted to Kruskall-Wallis and Cohenxs Kappa tests. No differences to wear were found between the following groups AxB; AxF; BxD; BxE; BxF; CxD; CxE; CxG; DxE (p<0.05). All other comparisons showed statistical difference. The inter-examiner concordance showed kappa values varying from 0.66 to 0.74.
Conclusions: The toothbrushes from all manufacturers presented bristles wear. Manufacturers C, D and G showed higher wear scores after 10000 brushing cycles compared to the other groups