A comparative clinical investigation of a novel toothbrush designed to enhance plaque removal efficacy

Purpose: To investigate the safety and efficacy of a new toothbrush with a novel brush head design (Oral-B CrossAction) in comparison with seven leadi ng manual brushes. Materials and Methods: Seven independent clinical studie s, each involving approximately 100 healthy subjects from a general populat ion, were carried out using a crossover design. In each study, the Oral-B C rossAction toothbrush was compared with an alternative brush for plaque rem oval efficacy. Plaque was evaluated before and after brushing for 60 s usin g the Proximal/Marginal Plaque Index. Subjects were randomly assigned to th e two brushes in each study and after brushing at visit 1 they returned aft er a further 2 weeks to repeat the procedure with the second brush. Results : All toothbrushes in the seven studies significantly reduced levels of pla que from their pre-brushing values and were found to be safe with no eviden ce of oral soft tissue trauma. In each of the studies, the CrossAction was found to be significantly (P < 0.05) more effective than the comparison bru sh for whole mouth plaque scores, as well as for plaque scores at the gingi val margin and proximal surfaces. Advantages in favor of the CrossAction ra nged from 9.8% to 23.2% for whole mouth plaque, from 5.3% to 20.6% for the gingival margin and from 12.8% to 24.5% for proximal surfaces. It was concl uded that the novel brush head design of the CrossAction toothbrush provide s enhanced plaque removal, especially from proximal surfaces, and that this toothbrush is significantly more effective than all seven toothbrushes tes ted.