EFFECTIVENESS OF MISWAK AS COMPARED WITH TOOTHBRUSH: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Objective: To determine if the traditional chewing stick Miswak was as effective in cleaning teeth as Toothbrush. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Armed Forces Institute of Dentistry, Rawalpindi, from Aug 2020 to Jan 2021. Methodology: A total of 300 subjects were included which were divided in two groups on the basis of whether they used miswak or toothbrush as a cleaning aid. Group A was toothbrush users and group B was Miswak user. Plaque Index was used to determine the cleanliness of teeth. The scores were recorded and data analyzed using SPSS-23. Results: The means and standard deviations of Plaque Index score for group A and B were 0.96 ± 0.58 and 0.98 ± 0.56 respectively. The comparison of Plaque Index score for both groups was insignificant with the p-value of 0.083. Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, it is concluded that, no significant difference was found in the effectiveness of traditional miswak and tooth brush. It is recommended that if the technique of teeth cleaning is good then any of the abovementioned means of teeth cleaning can be used.