Toothbrushing force study.

Abstract

Although the toothbrush has been in use for about 200 years, interest in the fundamentals of toothbrush design has been limited.1'2 During the past 30 years, a number of studies on toothbrush design have been published, but many gaps in our practical knowledge of the fundamentals of toothbrushing still remain to be filled.2A Ability to maintain adequate oral hygiene depends, in part, on the acceptability of such a program to the individual. It has been postulated that the individual is more likely to carry out an effective oral hygiene program if the time required to accomplish such a program is within limits acceptable to him.2 The less time required for the daily oral hygiene routine, the more likely the patient will adhere to the program. To this end, the vertical oscillating, electrically powered toothbrush makes an acceptable oral hygiene program more feasible, because it provides the same end results in far less time than the conventional manual toothbrush.2 Interest has recently been directed to the abrasive effects of various toothbrushes but, before meaningful dentifrice abrasive studies can be undertaken, a series of toothbrushing force studies must be conducted to answer the following questions: How does an individual use a toothbrush, either automatic or conventional? What force is applied through the brush to the tooth surface? How do these forces vary during brushing procedures in the various age groups? What are the means and extremes of brushing forces; and how does the motion of the brush or the character of the bristles influence such forces? Although a number of published reports have included estimates of the brushing forces of various types of toothbrushes,13,5 these estimates do not agree. For example, Phaneuf, Harrington,