Plaque removal efficacy of a newly developed powered toothbrush in the primary dentition of pre-school children.
A cross-over, single-blind clinical study was performed to compare a powered and a manual toothbrush for their ability to remove plaque from the teeth of pre-school children. Seventy-three randomly selected 4- to 6-year-old children from two kindergarten classes in Erfurt, Germany participated in the study. A new powered children's toothbrush (Rowenta) and a currently marketed manual children's toothbrush (Elmex) were used for an assessment period of two weeks each. Then the groups were crossed over to use the alternate toothbrush for another two weeks. Whole mouth, gingival margin and interproximal plaque area levels were determined using the Rustogi et al. plaque index. Statistical analysis of the data showed significantly effective (p < 0.05) plaque removal with both toothbrushes, immediately after toothbrushing and at one and two weeks, compared to the respective baseline scores. The statistical analysis also demonstrated that the powered toothbrush was significantly (p < 0.05) better on percent plaque reduction on all tooth areas compared to the manual toothbrush, except at two weeks with the interproximal assessment.