Methods: Thirty volunteers were enrolled with mean age of 20.12 years. All subjects participated in 2 examination phases (2 weeks apart), in the first phase, the subjects were randomly assigned to receive either the test toothbrush (0.013 mm) or control toothbrush (0.015 mm). Scaling and polishing were performed on 2 weeks before first examination. All volunteers had to abstain from tooth brushing and other oral hygiene procedures included mouth rinse for 24 hours prior to each experiment. Plaque index (PI) and number of gingival abrasion were measure both pre- and post-brushing.
Results: Plaque index was significantly decrease after tooth brushing in both test and control toothbrushes. However when compare between test toothbrush and control toothbrush, there is no significant difference. There is no gingival abrasion in both test toothbrush and control toothbrush.
Conclusions: Reducing diameter of tapered filament toothbrush does not increase efficiency on plaque removal.