[Tooth cleaning with different children's toothbrushes. A clinical study].

Toothbrushing is still the most effective method to maintain healthy conditions for teeth and gingiva. Over the last decades various manual and electric toothbrushes were developed to simplify oral hygiene and to shorten the duration of plaque removal. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two conventional toothbrushes and a three-headed toothbrush. Over a period of eight months 47 schoolchildren, aged between five and nine years, used different toothbrushes (one conventional medium-hard "Pingu", one conventional soft "CuraKid" and the three-headed toothbrush "Superbrush"). The study had a balanced, single blinded cross-over design. The children were assigned to one of two groups balanced with respect to the O'Leary Plaque Index. Following instructions, one group used a conventional brush during two months, the other group the"Superbrush". After two months they changed the brushes. After eight months the children had used all three brushes. The children were instructed to keep their usual oral hygiene habits. At the start and the end of each experimental period, the presence of plaque and gingival inflammation were recorded. A significant improvement of plaque removal and reduction of the gingival inflammation over eight months were noticed for all three brushes (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in the cleaning efficiency between the three toothbrushes (P > 0.05). Significant improvements in plaque removal in children can be achieved following good brushing instructions regardless of the toothbrush design used.