A two-week single-group longitudinal test of a new sonic-powered toothbrush simulating the 'bass brushing technique' with tapered bristles on the brush head for reduction of dental plaque and gingivitis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of a new powered toothbrush with tapered bristles on the brush head for the reduction of dental plaque and gingivitis. METHODS: This was a single-centre, single-group, longitudinal clinical trial. Thirty-two participants who were typical manual toothbrush users were recruited and assigned the sonic-powered brush. Interviews were arranged on the 1(st) , 4(th) , and 15(th) days which represented the baseline (T(1) ), middle (T(2) ) and final (T(3) ) time points, respectively. At each visit, the plaque index (PlI), gingival index (GI), bleeding on probing (BOP) and probing depth (PD) were recorded for the Ramfjord index teeth, gingival crevicular fluid(GCF) samples were collected and the proportions of eight periodontal pathogenic bacteria were analysed. Repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for comparisons at different time points. RESULTS: PlI was significantly reduced by 41.67% from T(1) to T(2) (p<0.001) and decreased by 18.57% from T(2) to T(3) (p=0.003). GI also varied significantly from T(1) to T(2) (p=0.018) and T(1) to T(3) (p=0.037). A 35.86% reduction in the BOP percentage occurred after using the sonic-powered toothbrush for 3 days (p=0.001). However, no significant difference was observed in the mean values of PD at different examination intervals (p=0.529). There was no significant difference in the proportions of bacteria between T(1) and T(3) (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: This research demonstrated the efficacy of the sonic-powered brush handle together with tapered bristles on the brush in reducing plaque and gingivitis within a short time period.