Plaque Removal Efficacy of Children's Powered Toothbrush Versus Manual Toothbrush

Objectives: To compare the plaque removal effectiveness of a new battery-powered toothbrush  for children and adolescents (Spinbrush^® GLOBRUSH) with that of a marketed manual toothbrush (Oral-B Indicator 30 Compact Soft Toothbrush).

Methods: This was a randomized, examiner-blind, cross-over study. Qualifying subjects, ages 8-17 yrs, were randomly assigned either the Spinbrush or the manual brush and instructed to brush at home twice daily with a standard fluoride toothpaste for two minutes during a 1-week familiarization period. After refraining from oral hygiene for 24 hrs and from eating and drinking for 4 hrs, subjects returned to the study site and were scored for plaque using the Rustogi modification of the Navy Plaque Index. They brushed under supervision with their assigned toothbrush for 2 min and plaque was rescored. They were then given the alternate toothbrush and the familiarization routine and evaluation process was repeated. The differences between pre- and post-brushing group mean plaque index scores were analyzed using a baseline-adjusted ANCOVA.

Results: A total of 105 subjects (52 ages 8-12 and 53 ages 13-17) completed this study. Within-group analysis showed that both toothbrushes produced statistically significant reductions in whole mouth and regional plaque scores from the pre-brushing baseline (p<0.0001), with whole-mouth reductions of 73.3% for the Spinbrush and 61.8% for the manual brush, respectively. Between-group comparisons showed that the Spinbrush produced a statistically significant greater plaque reduction than the manual brush, both whole-mouth (12.8%, p<0.0001) and at all subset sites analyzed, including difficult to reach areas such as the posterior lingual gingival (74.9%).

Conclusions: The Spinbrush GLOBRUSH was significantly more effective than the manual brush in reducing whole-mouth plaque scores as well as plaque scores at all subset sites evaluated.