Abstract
Introduction
Systematic reviews have shown that powered toothbrushes (PTs) are more effective than manual toothbrushes (MTs), but with only minor effect sizes. Whether PTs are used adequately, however, has not been investigated so far. The aim of the present study was therefore to analyse motion habits with PT in comparison to MT toothbrushes by video observation.
Materials and methods
One hundred subjects were enrolled in this observational trial and brushed their teeth in randomised order with a MT and PT while being video-filmed, resulting in 95 analysable sets of recordings. Parameters of interest were brushing duration (s; median (min;max)), type of brushing strokes, area of brushing, changes between areas (n; median (min;max)) and brushing sequence.
Results
Brushing duration was 145 s (60;354) and 135 s (48;271) for PT and MT, respectively (p ≤ 0.001). Subjects brushed vestibular surfaces completely, but reached oral surfaces to a much lesser extent, regardless of the toothbrush type. With both toothbrushes, subjects moved frequently between areas (MT 35 (14;79); PT 33 (14;85); n.s.) and brushed predominantly with circling and horizontal strokes; with the PT, 50.5% of the subjects spent only <10% of the brushing duration with passive brushing (positioning the brush head on the teeth with ≤2 movements/s).
Conclusions
Intra-individual motion patterns were similar with both MT and PT, and most subjects persisted in their habitual motion patterns regardless of the toothbrush type.
Clinical relevance
The use of PT and MT may need intensive training and supervision from oral hygiene educators in order to help subjects taking full advantage from these devices.
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Acknowledgements
We gratefully thank our volunteers for allowing us to observe their tooth brushing habits and for their patience and time.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Funding
The work was supported by the Department of Conservative and Preventive Dentistry, Dental Clinic of the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany.
Ethical approval
All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional ethics committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Ganss, C., Duran, R., Winterfeld, T. et al. Tooth brushing motion patterns with manual and powered toothbrushes—a randomised video observation study. Clin Oral Invest 22, 715–720 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00784-017-2146-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00784-017-2146-7