ABSTRACT
Background and aim: toothbrushing is one of the recommended methods for dental plaque removal. In order to achieve this goal having muscles coordination, necessary skills and ability in the instructed toothbrushing methods seem essential. The aim of this study was to survey the relationship between age and plaque removal ability in 7-11 year-old children in Hamedan
Methods and Materials: in this experimental study, 120 samples, age ranging from 7-11 were chosen randomly form primary schools in Hamedan. From each 2ge group, 24 children [12 girls and 12 boys] were examined. Hygiene index was recorded for each sample after avoiding toothbrushing for 48 hours. Then each participant was asked to brush hisher teeth for three minutes using horizontal scrub method and the hygiene index [HI] was recorded again. The data was analyzed through t-test and one-way variance analysis
Results: there was significant difference between mean percentage of plaque free surfaces before and after brushing with no differences among different sexes. The mean percentage of plaque free surfaces was significantly different among various age groups meaning that with increasing age the percentage of plaque free surfaces was increased and this difference was highly significant between 11-year-old children and other age groups
Conclusion: plaque removal was significantly different between 7 and 9, S and 10, 9 and 10 year-old-children and 11 year-old children showed a greatly significant difference with other age groups. Thus, it seems that tooth brushing ability improves by improves age and this improvement can be observed after 9 years old, although in this study the brushing ability of 11-year-old children was also not at optimum level