ABSTRACT
To improve the oral health status of Korean people, it is necessary to encourage proper oral hygiene management habits, such as toothbrushing, through appropriate health promotion techniques. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the removal of plaque and tooth abrasion using ultra-soft (filament 0.11~0.12 mm) and soft toothbrushes for toothbrushing. The plaque removal was performed using a dentiform and Arti-spray, and the Patient Hygiene Performance (PHP) index was calculated as the sum total score divided by the total number of surfaces. In the abrasivity experiment, according to the number of brushings, a micro Vickers hardness tester was used, and a sample in the range of 280~380 Vickers hardness number was selected. The number of toothbrushing stroke were 1,800 (2 months), 5,400 (6 months), 10,800 (12 months), and 21,600 (24 months). The tooth abrasion was measured using a scanning electron microscope. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 and a p-value < 0.05 was considered significant. According to the results, there was no statistically significant difference in the degree of plaque removal between ultra-soft and soft toothbrushes. The difference in tooth abrasion between before and after toothbrushing was found to be greater with the soft toothbrushes than with the ultra-soft toothbrushes. Therefore, the ultra-soft toothbrush not only lowers tooth damage by reducing tooth abrasion, but also shows a similar ability to remove plaque as soft toothbrushes.