Inappropriate Toothbrushes Selection Alter Composite Dental Material Restoration Surface Roughness: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Introduction. Regular dental plaque control by means of chemically and mechanically methods are among efforts to improve oral health and hygiene. Mechanical cleansing using toothbrush is still the gold standard for continually removing of dental plaque. But on the other hand, inappropriate selection of toothbrushes type selection promotes alteration on dental material restoration surface. Toothbrushes with different degree of stiffness are readily available on market and are classified as hard, medium, and soft. Mechanical friction due to regular movement of the toothbrush with various degree of stiffness was predicted as factor that related with surface roughness alteration on dental material restoration. Nowadays, resin composite material is still declared as the material of choice to repair dental hard tissue damage due to caries activity. However, it has been found that the irregularity of surface promotes bacterial adhesion and biofilm deposition, whereas the smooth surface does not favor bacterial deposition. The progress of bacterial deposition promotes secondary caries on the margin between material restoration and teeth. The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the influence of brushing treatment by means of three different toothbrushes on the surface of resin-based compositesExperimental. Specimens were prepared from experimental RBCs with 5 mm diameter and 2 mm thick. Specimens were divided equally into 3 different groups (group A, B, and C). Each group has 5 numbers of specimens. Group A was treated with hard toothbrush, and group B as well as C were treated with medium and soft toothbrush respectively. The toothbrush was mounted in the customized mechanically brushing machine to control the force and number of cycle during specified time. Brushing cycle and time for all groups was conducted for 1000 times of brushing in 60 minutes. Surface roughness resulted from mechanically brushing is evaluated by means of profilometer device.Results and Discussion. The results of the preliminary study shows that there is a differences of surface roughness between groups. The value of roughness varied among all group, and the highest number of roughness were found in group A (> 0.2 micrometres).Conclusions. This result implies brushing with hard toothbrush preferentially has greater risk of surface damage and become pronounce factor of secondary caries.