Baby Finger Toothbrush as an Innovative Alternative for Finger Method of Teeth Cleaning to Improve Oral Hygiene in Rural India

Abstract

Background: Most of the rural Indian population cleans the teeth with their finger and they find it difficult to switch to a manual toothbrush. To continue their legacy of cleaning the teeth with their finger, we conducted a study with a baby finger toothbrush, which is used by inserting an index finger for brushing the baby’s teeth. Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of a baby finger toothbrush with teeth cleaning method using finger. Materials and Methods: Sixty adults who cleaned their teeth with their fingers were divided into two groups. Those participants who were willing to use baby finger toothbrushes were included in Group A and the remaining participants were part of Group B. A nonrandomized controlled trial study design was used. Group A Participants were asked to use baby finger toothbrushes for 15 days. The oral hygiene index-simplified (OHI-S) was recorded for both the groups on day 1 and after 15 days. We then compared the oral hygiene status for those who use baby finger toothbrush with those who clean the teeth using finger. Results: OHI-S was significantly higher in the participants cleaning teeth with their fingers compared to the participants using baby finger toothbrush after 15 days. It showed that using a baby finger toothbrush is more effective than using your fingers to improve oral hygiene. Participants who used the baby finger toothbrush had the median OHI-S of 1.33, which is close to a good OHI-S (good-OHI-S = 0.0–1.2) and indicates that baby finger toothbrush was able to maintain “Fair” oral hygiene. Conclusion: To improve oral hygiene in rural India, where most individuals clean teeth with their fingers, a baby finger toothbrush can be used as an improvised method of tooth cleaning.