Efficacy of the Dr. Best e-Flex 3® Battery Toothbrush

The purpose of this single blind cross over study was to compare the cleaning efficacy of a battery powered toothbrush (Dr. Best e-flex 3) and a standard flat trim manual toothbrush (Elmex super 39). In this study 78 healthy subjects took part. Subjects were asked to abstain from all oral hygiene procedures for 48 hours. Af-ter plaque was scored with the Turesky modification of the Quigley Hein Index, the subjects brushed their teeth with either one or the other brush according to a predetermined randomisation schedule: In total, a cleaning time of one minute was given for the whole procedure. Immediately after brushing, plaque was scored again. The same investigator who was blind with respect to the brushes used did all plaque scoring. Subjects were instructed to continue with their usual oral care routine throughout the study period. They were scheduled to return after 12 - 14 days having abstained from all oral hygiene for 48 hours prior to the visit in order to repeat the evaluation sequence but brushing with the alternate brush. The percentage plaque reduc-tion was calculated to compare the cleaning efficacy of the two brushes. Results: Using the non-parametric Wilcoxon test for paired samples (p Parole chiave: Dr. Best e-Flex 3® battery toothbrush, standard flat trimmed manual tooth brush, plaque removal