Objective: The aim of this split-mouth, examiner-blind study was to compare the dental plaque removal and incidence of gingival abrasion associated with the use of hard- and soft-filament toothbrushes.
Methodology: The test group consisted of 20 non-dental students, mean age 25 years. After a three-day period of plaque accumulation following the use of a disclosing solution, the Quigley-Hein Plaque Index was recorded, while the presence of gingival abrasion was measured from photographs. Pairs of quadrants 1-3 and 2-4 were allocated to supervised brushing with hard- or soft-filament toothbrushes for 30 seconds, limited to the buccal aspects of the teeth. Plaque levels and gingival abrasion were again assessed. Initial and final values of the plaque index and the mean number of abrasions were compared with the Friedman and Wilcoxon tests (p < or = 0.05).
Results: Plaque indices were reduced significantly from a baseline of 4.12 in both groups to 1.21 after the use of hard-filament toothbrushes, and to 1.67 after the use of soft-filament toothbrushes. The use of hard-filament toothbrushes resulted in a significantly higher mean number of lesions when compared to the soft-filament toothbrushes; 11.6 and 7.9, respectively (p = 0.018).
Conclusion: Hard-filament toothbrushes remove more plaque than soft filament brushes, but also cause a higher number of gingival abrasions.