COMPARATIVE CLINICAL STUDY
Conducted at the Faculty of Dental Surgery of Paris

METHODOLOGY

• The objective of the clinical study was to test the efficacy of the DR 32 power toothbrush by comparison with a "reference" power toothbrush, which has been the subject of numerous clinical studies.
  

• The clinical study was a randomized, single-blind to the examiner, parallel group comparative study. The allocation of the brushes was randomly determined blind to the investigators, who did not know which brush was used by the participants.
  

• The study was conducted with third year students of the Faculty of Dental Surgery in order to have homogeneous groups in terms of age, oral hygiene, manual dexterity, and compliance. There were 42 participants to the study.
  

• Each participant was given a tube of toothpaste, a timer, and a brush. The brushing instructions were identical for the two brushes: 2 brushings per day, a maximum of one minute for each brushing, in order to replicate the brushing habits of the general population.
  

• A one week adaptation period was granted to the participants to get used to the brush they tested. The plaque indices were measured the day the brush was given, then 8 days after, and finally 36 days after the brush was given.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

• During the entirety of the study (between D0 and D36), the reduction in plaque index was significantly stronger for the DR 32:
  - A 27.4% reduction in plaque index from 1.57 to 1.21 for the DR 32
  - A 2.1% reduction in plaque index from 144 to 1.41 for the reference brush

• During the adaptation period (between D0 and D8), the reduction in plaque index was very pronounced for the DR32 (a 22.9% reduction in plaque index from 1.57 to 1.21), indicating that the adaptation to a new and original brush was very quick.
  

• It is interesting to note that the interproximal sites, which are the most difficult to brush and always require the use of additional interdental cleaning devices (dental floss, interproximal brushes…), were better cleaned with the DR 32. This result is promising because it could indicate that people with no specific oral hygiene instructions could improve the efficacy of their brushing without using additional instruments.

The results of the clinical study were presented at the Congress of the European Federation of Periodontology (Europerio 4) in Berlin in June 2003.

An abstract of the results of the clinical study was published in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology.