Aim and background: To evaluate and compare the efficiency of a manual, electrical, and chewable toothbrush for plaque removal in children.
Materials and methods: A total of 58 children aged 8–14 years who reported to the Department of Pedodontics. The children and guardians were familiarized with the disclosing agent, manual toothbrush, electrical toothbrush, and chewable toothbrush before the commencement of the study with the help of video and verbal demonstrations. Thirty children who were interested in participating in the study were included.
Results: The study consisted of 30 participants who were divided into three groups of 10 each—group A: manual toothbrush, group B: electrical toothbrush, and group C: chewable toothbrush. A disclosing agent was applied, and Oral Hygiene Index-Simplified (OHI-S) and Toothbrush Quality and Hygiene Index (TQHI) scores were recorded at baseline and after 1 week. The data was tabulated and subjected to statistical analysis. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0. Intragroup comparisons, that is, between baseline and 1 week, were performed using the paired samples t-test. Intergroup comparisons between the three groups were performed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by post hoc Tukey test (pairwise comparisons). A p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Conclusion: The plaque removal efficiency of electric toothbrushes is the highest, followed by the chewable toothbrush group, while the manual toothbrush group is the least. The chewable toothbrush highly surpasses the manual toothbrush group as it contains xylitol substances, which reduce Mutans Streptococcus in the plaque.
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