Comparative Clinical Study of Dental Plaque Removal Efficacity between Manual Brushing, Electric Brushing and Ultrasonic Brushing

Purpose: To compare the effectiveness of a manual, a powered and an ultrasonic toothbrush on reducing dental plaque in dental student population.

Materials and Methods: This study is a comparative cross-over study, 50 students were enrolled in it and all completed it. All the subjects had to be in good condition of general health and had to have complete dentition without malocclusions. They were required to stop oral hygiene for 12 hours and any food or beverage consumption for 4 hours before each of the three appointments during which the plaque index was recorded before and after the brushing with the toothbrush. Tooth assigned that day, the brushing time was 3 min for manual brushing, and 2 min for electric and ultrasonic brushing.

Results: All toothbrushes significantly reduced plaque index after brushing (p <106). The ultrasonic toothbrush was significantly more effective than the manual toothbrush in removing the plaque (P = 0.0003). While the comparison between the electric toothbrush with oscillation-rotation action and the manual toothbrush was statistically insignificant (P = 0.0982), so as the comparison between rotary and ultrasonic electric rotary toothbrushes (p = 0.0922).

Conclusion: The three toothbrushes managed to reduce the amount of plaque after brushing. The ultrasonic toothbrush is significantly better than the manual toothbrush in removing the plaque.