A COMPARISON OF PLAQUE REMOVAL BY DIFFERENT TOOTHBRUSHES AND TOOTHBRUSHING METHODS

Six toothbrushing methods were evaluated using several kinds of toothbrushes. Two kinds of electric toothbrushes were tested also. Forty-two adults who had normal dentition and clinically healthy periodontal tissue, aged 20 to 34, 36 males and 6 females, voluntered for this study. The plaque score was calculated by the modified Volpe s method on which Suzuki et al. reported before. The scoring of the plaque was restricted to the six teeth (6/41|14/6). The average percentage of plaque removal from the total (labial and lingual) tooth surface by different toothbrushing methods was as follows: (1) 75.2± 9.9% by the Fones method with a hard brush, (2) 71.7 ± 11.1% by the Scrub method with a hard brush, (3) 67.4 ±12.5% by the modified Stillman’s method with a hard brush, (4) 64.7 ± 13.7% by the National electric toothbrush with a soft brush, (5) 62.9 ± 13.6% by the Roll method with a hard brush (6) 58.l ± 16.3% by the Charters method with a brush of a medium hardness, (7) 55.2 ± 10.2% by the Bass method with a brush of a medium hardness. A similar tendency was obtained independently on the labial, lingual and papillary tooth surface. The hard brush was the most effective for the plaque removal by all kinds of brushing methods.