Clinical evaluation of the cleansing effectiveness various types toothbrushes used by adolescents 12—15 years old

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to conduct a clinical assessment of the effectiveness of toothbrushes of various types in adolescents aged 12—15 years by dynamic monitoring of the state of hard tissues of teeth, periodontal and hygienic status.
 Material and Methods: A parallel, randomized, open clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of three different toothbrushes among adolescents aged 12—15 years. The study involved 60 adolescents who were randomly divided into 3 groups of 20 people. In each group, adolescents received one type of toothbrush. In group A, adolescents used a manual brush with a multi-level brush field for brushing their teeth, in group B — a manual brush with a flat brush field, in group C — an electric toothbrush making 8800 reciprocating rotational and 20000 pulsating movements per minute. The dental examination included the determination of the KUz, PI (Turesky S., 1970) and PMA (Parma S., 1960) indices. After the examination, the teenagers were taught the standard method of brushing their teeth. Repeated examinations were carried out after 1, 2 and 3 months. To compare the indicators of one group in dynamics, the Wilcoxon test was used, and to identify differences between groups, the Mann-Whitney test was used.
 Results: The values of the KPUz index did not change in the course of the study in any of the groups. In all groups, there was a significant decrease in PI after 1, 2 and 3 months from the start of the study (Wilcoxon test, p<0.05 compared with baseline). The cleaning effect of the studied samples of toothbrushes for 1 month. was 48.4% in group A, 27.6% in group B and 56.7% in group C -Whitney, p<0.05). Of the manual toothbrushes, a brush with a multi-level brush field turned out to be more effective. Along with a decrease in the index of plaque in all groups, there was a significant decrease in the PMA index (Wilcoxon test, p<0.001 compared with the baseline). The achieved effect was maintained for 2 and 3 months. from the start of the study, with no significant difference between the groups (p>0.05).
 Conclusion: The highest cleaning effect was observed when adolescents used an electric toothbrush. Of the manual toothbrushes for teenagers, the brush with a multi-level brush field turned out to be more effective.