Valutazione dell’efficacia di due dispositivi monouso per l’igiene orale.

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of two disposable devices for personal dental hygiene. Materials and methods: Experimental, randomized, controlled study of a sample of young healthy adults. The subjects were randomly assigned to a test or a control group. The former subjects used the disposable dental hygiene devices (a low-density polyethylene toothbrush and a polyurethane sponge swab), and the controls used their own traditional toothbrushes. Two calibrated operators calculated the plaque index as described by Dababneh (NMPS) and the gingival index using the Löe and Silness method (GI), at the beginning of the study (T0) and after 48 hours (T1). Results: Compared with controls, the test group presented a significant increase in the plaque index at T1 among the users of disposable devices, that was smaller in those who used the toothbrush (tooth brush p-value ≤0.002 vs sponge swab p-value ≤0.001), in comparison with the control group (one-way ANOVA). Conclusions: The use of a disposable toothbrush is better than using a disposable sponge swab.