A six-month clinical evaluation of the Dentrust toothbrush.

: Clinical study guidelines have been established by the American Dental Association for assessing plaque and gingivitis reductions with chemotherapeutic agents. Two six-month studies are required. While the toothbrush is also instrumental in plaque and gingivitis reduction, there are currently no study requirements by the ADA for manual brush efficacy. It was thought to apply the long-term efficacy requirements for chemotherapeutic agents to two manual toothbrushes to assess their efficacy for comparative purposes. Forty-eight subjects using the Dentrust toothbrush and forty-five subjects using the Oral-B toothbrush completed a six-month study to assess safety, plaque removal and gingivitis reduction. The subjects were randomly assigned to use either the newly designed (three sided) Dentrust toothbrush or the traditional flat-headed toothbrush. The subjects took their respective toothbrushes home following a baseline evaluation, and were subsequently assessed at three and six months by the same examiners with the same indices in this single-blind trial. There were no significant differences between the two groups on plaque removal during the study. At six months, the Dentrust group removed a significant amount of both buccal and lingual plaque and the flat-headed toothbrush removed a significant amount of buccal plaque only. On gingivitis the groups had no significant differences at baseline; however, by six months the Dentrust group was significantly better than the flat-headed toothbrush on gingivitis reduction. Long-term use of the Dentrust toothbrush can be said to significantly contribute to gingival health overall, and especially in the hard to reach lingual areas compared to long-term use of a traditional flat-head toothbrush.