Safety Testing of a New Electronic Toothbrush

W hile there have been major advances in understanding the causes and treatments of the inflammatory periodontal diseases in the past decade, there is still high reliance on the patient to prevent progression of disease through daily oral hygiene, primarily toothbrushing and flossing. A new electronic toothbrush, which produces mild fluid cavitation as well as rapid fluid streaming, has been developed and has shown promise in the ease and efficacy with which it removes plaque. In order to determine the safety of frequent and prolonged use of this device, the gingival tissues of 6 mongrel dogs were exposed to excessively long daily exposures to this toothbrush for up to 2 months. Each quadrant of each dog's mouth was randomly assigned a different treatment: no brushing, manual brush 1.0 minute, electronic brush 1.0 minute, or electronic brush 7.5 minutes. The dogs were examined weekly by a periodontist who was blinded to the treatments. Plaque scores and bleeding on probing scores were calculated, and possible gingival irritation was monitored carefully. At the end of the trial gingival biopsies taken from all the test areas. These were processed for conventional histopathologic evaluation and examined by an oral pathologist who was also blinded as to the treatments. The results showed that brushing a single posterior segment of teeth for 7.5 minutes daily for 2 months with the electronic brush did not result in any clinically or histologically evident damage to the gingiva. Rather, the areas so treated showed excellent health as determined by both clinical and histologic criteria. These findings support the contention that daily use of this electronic toothbrush is safe and effective in removal of dental plaque. J Periodontol 1993; 64:941–946 .