Nihon Shishubyo Gakkai Kaishi (Journal of the Japanese Society of Periodontology)

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of ultrasonic and manual toothbrushes in plaque control in the absence of oral hygiene instructions. The subjects, who included the staff of the Nihon University School of Dentistry Dental Hospital, consisted of 10 men and 20 women who had never previously received instructions on oral hygiene.
During the first week of the study, all the subjects used a manual toothbrush, and during the second week, they used an ultrasonic toothbrush, just by reading through the documentation attached to the ultrasonic toothbrush. Plaque removal was assessed using O'Leary's plaque control record (PCR) on days 4, 7, 11 and 14. The PCR scores for toothbrushing using the manual and ultrasonic toothbrushes were 47.2±10.9%, 45.0±13.5% respectively, and no statistically significant difference was observed between the two groups. A similar tendency of PCR in each subject was seen between the two types of toothbrushes, and a statistically significant correlation was observed between the two groups (P<0.01). These results indicate that improvement of brushing skills by professional advice and instruction is more important to achieve good oral hygiene than the choice of toothbrush.
Nihon Shishubyo Gakkai Kaishi(J Jpn Soc Periodontol)53(3) : 191-196, 2011.

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