Use of the rolling and scrubbing methods by the elderly and ways of elevating brushing effectiveness

Abstract

Tooth brushing effectiveness is often very low in the elderly. In order to investigate the reasons for this and examine methods of elevating brushing effectiveness, we compared young adults and the elderly with respect to various characteristics of brushing movements that affect this effectiveness in the rolling and scrubbing methods. There is a marked decrease in muscle force, especially grip force, in the elderly compared with young adults. We found that the deterioration in brushing efficiency caused by this decrease in function can be corrected and the efficiency improved if the person practices while observing his brushing patterns on an oscilloscope.