A single-use and 3-month clinical investigation of the comparative efficacy of a battery-operated power toothbrush and a manual toothbrush.

Purpose: To compare the safety and efficacy of a manual toothbrush and a battery-operated power toothbrush in two separate studies, one utilizing a single-use design and the other a 3-month parallel-group design.

Materials And Methods: The toothbrushes compared in the two studies were the Oral-B CrossAction manual toothbrush and the Colgate Actibrush battery-operated power toothbrush. The single-use study, which used a single-blind, cross-over design, involved 71 healthy subjects, who were instructed to abstain from oral hygiene for 23-25 hours prior to brushing with each of the two toothbrushes. Plaque was measured using the Proximal Marginal Index (PMI) pre- and post-brushing. The 3-month parallel-group study involved a total of 113 subjects who had plaque (PMI), gingivitis and bleeding (Loe and Silness) scored at baseline and after 1 and 3 months of product use.

Results: In both studies, the two toothbrushes were found to be safe. In the single-use study, significantly greater amounts of plaque were removed by the CrossAction manual toothbrush than by the Actibrush for the whole mouth as well as for marginal and approximal sites (P < 0.001). In the 3-month study, significantly greater plaque reduction was achieved with the CrossAction brush, the advantage being significant at 1 month for all sites except lingual sites (P < 0.05). At 3 months, there were consistent numerical advantages in favor of the CrossAction at all sites except lingual sites. Reductions in gingivitis were found to be similar with both toothbrushes.