Randomized clinical controlled trial on the effectiveness of conventional and orthodontic manual toothbrushes

• Autor(a) principal: Gomes,Lisiane Krieger
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Sarmento,Carlos Frederico, Seabra,Flávio Roberto Guerra, Santos,Patrícia Bittencourt Dutra dos, Pinheiro,Fábio Henrique de Sa Leitão
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Oral Research
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1806-83242012000400013
• topic: Orthodontics; Biofilms; Oral Hygiene

The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two manual toothbrushes (conventional and orthodontic). The following clinical parameters were used: VPI (visible plaque index) and GBI (gingival bleeding index). Patients, 64 total (30 males and 34 females), in the permanent dentition, with a mean age of 17.8 years, were randomly selected from a practice specializing in orthodontics. Each participant received audio-visual instructions on oral hygiene as well as a kit of materials containing two manual toothbrushes (orthodontic and conventional). Each toothbrush was randomly allocated to one side of the mouth (split-mouth design) and used for a period of approximately 4 weeks. The VPI and GBI were measured by a single calibrated examiner before (T0) and after (T1) the implementation of interventions. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the VPI values between the groups, and the Student t-test for independent samples was used to compare GBI values. The level of significance was set at 5%. No statistically significant difference was observed between the groups at T0 for both VPI and GBI, and at T1 for the GBI. The manual orthodontic toothbrush produced a statistically lower VPI (P < 0.05) at T1, but this did not seem to be of clinical importance.