A Study on the Number of Brushing Strokes in Toothbrushing Education / 치위생과학회지

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to focus on the number of brushing strokes among the performance factors and identify if the 10 times stroke of the rolling method is rational. Moreover, we evaluated the changes in oral health knowledge, perception, and behavior after our rolling method instruction. The 10-stroke method of toothbrushing has been regarded as an effective method of removal of dental plaque, although there is little evidence to support this claim. We allocated 40 healthy subjects to two intervention groups. During five visits, we measured a score for dental plaque removal and instructed the subjects on a toothbrushing technique with 5 or 10 strokes per section. At the initial and final visits, subjects completed a questionnaire on one designed specifically for this study about oral health knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to compare the dental plaque removal score between the groups, and the changes in scores within each group over time. We also compared changes in mean scores in oral health knowledge, perceptions and behaviors before and after toothbrushing instruction. We found that the score for dental plaque removal increased with each additional toothbrushing instruction in both groups (p < 0.001). However, we found no differences in the dental plaque removal scores between the 5-stroke and 10-stroke groups (p=0.399). The levels of oral health knowledge, perceptions and behaviors increased after the toothbrushing instructions in both groups. Our findings suggest that there is no advantage in emphasizing the 10-stroke method of toothbrushing in an oral health education program.