Plaque removal efficacy of an innovative U-shaped power toothbrush: a pilot study

Background: This study evaluated the plaque removal efficacy of a novel U-shaped sonic power toothbrush compared to a manual soft toothbrush. Methods: Twenty-two children (aged 5–8 years) participated in an examiner-blinded, two-period crossover trial. Each child used a standard soft manual toothbrush (for 2 minutes) and the U-shaped AutoBrush® device (for 30 seconds) in random sequence, with each use separated by a two-day at-home washout period. Before each brushing, dental plaque was disclosed and scored using the Lobene-Soparkar Modification of the Turesky–Quigley-Hein Plaque Index. After 12–16 hours of no oral hygiene, baseline plaque levels were recorded, followed by supervised brushing with the assigned toothbrush and a post-brushing plaque assessment. Plaque reduction (whole-mouth and hard-to-reach sites) was analyzed by baseline-adjusted Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Results: All 22 participants (13 males, 9 females), average age of 6.5 years (±1.1), completed both study periods with no product-related adverse events; both toothbrushes were well tolerated. Both the manual and U-shaped toothbrush significantly reduced plaque from baseline on a whole-mouth level (p < 0.001). However, the manual toothbrush showed minimal plaque reduction at certain areas (e.g., proximal and lingual surfaces), whereas the U-shaped toothbrush achieved substantial plaque removal across all regions. The U-shaped toothbrush yielded significantly greater mean plaque reductions than the manual brush for whole mouth, (all facial and lingual tooth surfaces), (50.6%), gumline (71.2%), proximal (40.7%) and other difficult-to-clean sites (p < 0.001). Conclusions: A 30-second brushing with the U-shaped sonic toothbrush was significantly more effective at removing plaque in children than a 2-minute brushing with a standard manual toothbrush, including at hard-to-reach sites. These findings suggest that the innovative U-shaped powered toothbrush may help improve oral hygiene efficiency for young children. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT06300073, https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT06300073.