EVALUATION OF A NEW TOOTHBRUSH CONCEPT WITH REGARD TO BACTERIAL ELIMINATION - IMPRINT STUDY USING SCANNING ELECTRON-MICROSCOPY

The efficacy of a new toothbrush filament layout concept (Topix, Perid ental, France) was compared to that of a standard vertical-tuft toothb rush. Bacterial and exogenous deposit elimination were used as paramet ers of efficacy. 30 dental surgery students took part in the study. Pl aque index scores were calculated according to a pre-defined protocol. Imprints of the 6 anterior teeth were taken before and after brushing with the 2 types of brushes, without toothpaste or rinsing. Imprints were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). 12 h after brushi ng, imprint examination revealed bacterial flora polymorphism and the amount of dental plaque accumulated at the cervical third zone of teet h. Automated quantification in this zone of exogenous bodies showed th at after brushing with vertical-tuft and cross-tuft brushes, there rem ained 1.26 mm2 and 0.83 mm2 of dental plaque, squamae, and blood resid ues, respectively. The plaque index values correlated to scanning elec tron microscopic observations. There was no significant difference in terms of efficacy between the cross-tuft and vertical-tuft toothbrushe s.