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Review
. 2021 Feb 4;18(4):1468.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18041468.

The Efficacy of Powered Oscillating Heads vs. Powered Sonic Action Heads Toothbrushes to Maintain Periodontal and Peri-Implant Health: A Narrative Review

Camilla Preda  1   2 , Andrea Butera  3 , Silvia Pelle  1 , Eleonora Pautasso  1 , Alessandro Chiesa  2   3 , Francesca Esposito  1   2 , Giacomo Oldoini  1   4 , Andrea Scribante  3 , Anna Maria Genovesi  1   4 , Saverio Cosola  1   5
Affiliations
Review

The Efficacy of Powered Oscillating Heads vs. Powered Sonic Action Heads Toothbrushes to Maintain Periodontal and Peri-Implant Health: A Narrative Review

Camilla Preda et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Objectives: To compare the efficacy of rotating-oscillating heads (ORHs) VS sonic action heads (SAHs) powered toothbrushes on plaque accumulation and gingival inflammation.

Methods: An electronic (MEDLINE, Embase, Inspec, PQ SciTech and BIOSIS) and a complementary manual search were made to detect eligible studies. RCTs meeting the following criteria were included: final timepoint longer than 15 days; year of publication after 2000; patients without orthodontic appliances or severe systemic/psychiatric diseases. Studies comparing two or more different types of sonic/roto-oscillating toothbrushes were excluded. Selection of articles, extraction of data, and assessment of quality were made independently by several reviewers.

Results: 12 trials (1433 participants) were included. The differences between ORHs and SAHs toothbrushes were expressed as weighted mean differences (WMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). The heterogeneity of data was evaluated. Concerning Plaque Index, both toothbrushes obtained comparable results. Six trials of up to 3 months and at an unclear risk of bias provided significant outcomes in terms of gingival inflammation in favor of ORHs toothbrush. Evidence resulting from three trials of up to 6 months and at a high/low risk of bias stated SAHs toothbrush superiority in gingival inflammation.

Conclusions: Both ORHs and SAHs toothbrushes improved the outcomes measured from the baseline. In most of the good quality trials included, SAHs toothbrush showed statistical better long-term results. Due to the shortage of investigations, no further accurate conclusions can be outlined with reference to the superiority of a specific powered toothbrush over the other.

Keywords: domiciliary oral hygiene; electric toothbrushes; home care; rotating oscillating heads (ORHs); sonic action heads (SAHs).

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Articles inclusion. Flow chart diagram (2009) of search strategy adapted from PRISMA.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Gingival Index, the mean values of Gingival Index (changes) in relation to the number of patients of each study at each time-point: blue color correspond to ORHs and black corresponds to SAHs toothbrushes [41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Bleeding Index, the mean values of Bleeding Index (changes) in relation to the number of patients in each study at each time-point: blue color corresponds to ORHs and black to SAHs toothbrushes [41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Plaque Index, the mean values of Plaque Index (changes) in relation to the number of patients in each study at each time-point: blue color corresponds to ORHs and black to SAHs toothbrushes [41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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