The Effects of Tooth Brush to the Brain Functions

Methods: 8 adult subjects (6 males and 2 females aged 27 to 31 years, average age being 28.3) participated in the study.  DIMENSION analysis using measurements obtained from electroencephalogram (EEG) is a highly sensitive tool for detecting brain function activity(Da) without exposing patients either to radiation or invasive procedures. In order to evaluate brain activity, EEG data were analyzed using DIMENSION.  The duration of the measurement was 3 minutes.  The Wilcoxon rank-sum test (a = 0.05) was used to compare brain function activity tooth brushing and an oral model brushing. 

Results: For both the study group and the control group, Da after the brushing was higher than that of before, which significantly indicated the brain function activation(p < 0.05). Although the mean value of Da of the study group was higher than that of the control group, there was no statistically significant difference(p > 0.05).

Conclusions: It is surmised that finger movements when brushing teeth affect the motor cortices and the stimulation by a brush to the oral sensation affects the sensory cortices. This research revealed that the brushing promotes the activation of the brain functions. However, it didn’t go far enough to clarify the difference between normal tooth brush which stimulates the motor cortices and the sensory cortices and tooth brush for oral cavity model which mainly stimulates the motor cortices only.