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 Lo¨e 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.