Rotary toothbrush may lead to tooth surface abrasion, Finds study

The study is published in the Journal of Indian Society of Periodontology.

Adequate plaque control facilitates good gingival and periodontal health, prevents tooth decay, and preserves oral health. Toothbrushing is the primary method of removing plaque and can be classified into powered and manual toothbrushes.

Therefore, Tejinder Pal Singh and associates from the Department of Periodontology and Oral Implantology, MN Dav Dental College, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India conducted the present study to compare the abrasiveness and surface roughness caused by four different power-driven toothbrushes with a different mode of action, on tooth surfaces in vitro.

The authors carried out an in vitro experiment that included a total of eighty freshly extracted tooth specimens which were equally divided into four groups. Each group was brushed with the specifically assigned electric toothbrush to that group, but keeping parameters such as force applied during brushing, storage of tooth before and after brushing, and toothbrushing time same. A total of the 2-month study was done on each tooth specimen.

Tooth surface roughness was recorded before and after the toothbrushing experiment to check the difference between surface roughness readings. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis was done afterward to analyse the surface topography of each group specimens. The Paired t-test used for intergroup analysis and intragroup analysis was done using Kruskal–Wallis test were the statistical analysis used.

It was then found out that after comparing the baseline and final readings of each group, the mean difference between values is highly significant in Group 1 (rotary/oscillatory). Also, the mean rank of Group 1 was least in all four groups, which showed the highest tooth surface abrasion in that group.

Moreover, the SEM analysis also revealed that Group 1 tooth specimens had deeper scratches/lines comparatively to other groups.

Hence, the authors brought to conclusion that "rotary/oscillatory toothbrush caused the highest tooth surface abrasion when compared with other electronic toothbrushes."