ABSTRACT
Background: Dental plaque may cause oral problems that may include dental caries, periodontal problems, and halitosis. Motivation, awareness and manual dexterity have much effect on tooth brushing. The advantages related with manual and battery operated tooth brushing have been reported different in the literature
Objective: To compare the manual and battery operated tooth brush for plaque removal efficiency
Study Design: Randomized control trial
Setting: The Dental OPD of Department of Community Dentistry, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro
Period: November 2011 to June 2013
Methods: Total 100 patients of both genders, aged ?18 years were included. Patients were equally divided into manual and battery operated brush groups. The presence of plaque was checked and plaque index was recorded. Wilcoxon sign pair test was applied to compare pre and post plaque score for manual and battery operated tooth brush. Independent sample t test was applied to compare percent reduction of plaque score between groups. The significance level of P-value was up to 0.05
Results: In manual brush group, 27 were male and 23 were female. Mean age was 25.65 +/- 5.87 years. In battery operated brush group, 32 were male, 18 were female. Mean age was 29.92 +/- 10.37 years. Before manual brushing mean plaque score was 1.88 +/- 0.65 while after brushing it was reduced to 1.11 +/- 0.43. Percent reduction was 40.96%, p=0.0005. Mean plaque score was 1.35 +/- 0.37 and 0.69 +/- 0.29 before and after brushing respectively in battery operated brushing. Percent reduction was 48.9%, p=0.0005. Battery operated brushing was significantly more effective than manual [p=0.023]
Conclusion: Battery operated tooth brush was significantly more effective than manual toothbrush. It removes significantly more supragingival plaque than manual tooth brush