Comparative study of 2 electric and 2 manual toothbrushes in patients withfixed orthodontic appliances

The objective of this prospective single-blind crossover clinical trial was to evaluate the efficacy of 4 toothbrushes in 33-children undergoing fixed appliance orthodontic therapy. The toothbrushes included in this study wer e the Braun Oral-B 3D Plaque Remover (Kronberg, Germany), the Philips-Jorda n HP 510 (Philips Domestic Appliances; Groningen, The Netherlands), the Lac tona orthodontic toothbrush (Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands), and the Oral -B Advantage Control Grip (Braun); the first 2 are electric, and the last 2 are manual. Every patient tested each type of toothbrush in a randomly des igned sequence. Plaque and gingival scores were recorded at baseline and af ter every 4-week test period. All patients received professional prophylaxi s after each clinical evaluation. The data were analyzed with the Friedman test, which showed no significant differences among the 4 brushes for any o f the parameters measured. The Wilcoxon signed rank test, comparing the pla que and the gingival scores between the upper and lower jaw for each brush, indicated that plaque removal was more efficient in the lower jaw than in the upper.