CLINICAL AND LABORATORY EVALUATION OF POWERED ELECTRIC TOOTHBRUSHES -LABORATORY DETERMINATION OF RELATIVE INTERPROXIMAL CLEANING EFFICIENCY OF 4 POWERED TOOTHBRUSHES

The clinical brushing data from the paper entitled, Clinical and Labor atory Evaluation of Powered Electric Toothbrushes. In Vivo Determinati on of Average Force for Use of Manual and Powered Toothbrushes, by Boy d et al. in this Special Issue, were incorporated into a laboratory cl eaning model. Utilizing a standardized brushing machine and a methyl m ethacrylate substrate, four powered brushing instruments were tested f or cleaning efficiency: Rota-dent(R), Braun Oral-B(R), Interplak(R) an d Sonicare(R), and a manual toothbrush (Oral-B(R) P40). The Sonicare p owered brushing instrument was tested at the manufacturer's recommende d brushing force of 0.5 N as well as a calculated force of 1.0 N. The results showed that the Rota-dent was more efficient (p < 0.01-0.001) in removing stain from both flat and interproximal surfaces than any o f the other tested brushes. These results, together with those reporte d by McLey, et al. in Clinical and Laboratory Evaluation of Powered El ectric Toothbrushes: Laboratory Determination of Relative Abrasion of Three Powered Toothbrushes in this Special Issue, demonstrate that the rotary action Rota-dent instrument has the most efficient combination of low abrasion and high cleaning efficiency of the four powered brus hes and the manual brush when all instruments were tested using clinic ally documented pressures.