420 - Washcloths Versus Toothbrushing In Plaque Removal For Young Children

Saturday, May 28, 2022

11:40 AM – 11:55 AM PT

Location: Sails Pavilion

Has Audio

Presenting Author(s)

DT

Douglas C. Tse, DMD

Pediatric Dental Resident
St Barnabas Hospital
St Barnabas Hosptial
New York, New York, United States

Co-Author(s)

DR

Dara Rosenberg, DDS

St. Barnabas Hospital

Research Mentor(s)

RT

Rebekah Tannen, DDS

St Barnabas Hospital
Bronx, New York, United States

Program Director(s)

PC

Paul Chu, DDS

Program Director
St. Barnabas Hospital
Bronx, New York, United States

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to show that washcloths are just as effective in plaque removal as toothbrushes in preschool age children when performed by a parent/guardian after instruction by a dental practitioner.

Methods
Subjects for this study were patients ages 2-5 years old who are cooperative, healthy and scheduled for a hygiene recall visit. The dentist will educate the parent or guardian on oral hygiene techniques (toothbrush and washcloth) prior to treatment. Using a split mouth design one side will be randomly selected to receive toothbrush prophy (control) and the other side a washcloth prophy (experimental). A timer will be used to ensure both sides are given an equal amount of treatment time by the parent/guardian. After treatment, plaque disclosing solution will be used to reveal remaining plaque. To record results, the Simplified Oral Hygiene Index will be used. Plaque will be scored from 0 to 3 to measure the amount of plaque left on the clinical crown surfaces of eight teeth. One molar and one anterior tooth from each quadrant will be scored to compare the control side versus the experimental side. The scores for each tooth are summed, then divided by the maximum possible score to obtain a numerical value from 0 to 3.
Results
Washcloths had 10.3% difference compared to Toothbrushes
Conclusions
This study shows there is not a statistical significance in plaque removal between washcloths and toothbrushing in young children when performed by the patient’s primary caretaker. This helps give parents/guardians confidence that they are achieving comparable results with washcloths to toothbrushing if their children are not able to tolerate a toothbrush yet and would prefer using washcloths.