Teeth Cleaning
Dr. Braich office is equipped with the best ultrasonic cleaning system which performs faster cleaning. Ultrasonic teeth cleaning also removes less good tooth structure and provide a much more comfortable experience to the customer and the hygenist performing the cleaining.
A recent short-term (3 month) clinical orthodontic study was done using Sonicare. However, that study was not blinded, only evaluated the facial surfaces of anterior teeth, involved non-random and non-matched subjects and did not evaluate bond failures. A long-term study would be helpful to adequately address the significance of a laboratory report which found that the Sonicare may negatively impact on the strength and seal of bonded orthodontic brackets.
In clinical trials, powered brushing instruments exhibit superiority to manual tooth brushing principally when their use is supported by professional instruction and reinforcement.
Without the commitment to educate the patient on proper use, and to motivate patients during recall appointments, the novelty effect of the instrument will likely diminish with time and the patient may return to his/her prior level of oral hygiene compliance.
In general, patients are not willing to spend the time dental professionals recommend to brush and floss. Powered instruments are potentially faster than manual brushes at cleaning tooth surfaces and the efficiency could potentially improve the plaque control regimen for most adults. In this regard, one powered brush, the Rota-dent has been clinically demonstrated to need only one half as much time to remove an equal amount of plaque as a manual brush.
The manual brush is least effective in intra-oral areas with difficult access, such as interproximal spaces, lingual surfaces, around prosthodontic and orthodontic appliances, endosseous implants, open embrasures and exposed furcations. Powered instruments with brush heads similar to a conventional toothbrush essentially face the same access problems as a manual brush. A small brush head should result in better plaque control at these problem sites. The Rota-dent has the smallest brush head and the thinnest bristles of the powered instruments discussed in this article.
No adverse reactions or trauma involving either oral soft or hard tissues have been attributed to the long-term use of powered brushing instruments. Since these brushes are typically used at one-half to one-third of the force applied to manual brushes, powered instruments may provide some long-term protection for patients. Among powered brushing instruments, the Rota-dent has been demonstrated to require the lowest applied brushing force followed, in order, by the Braun Oral-B Plaque Remover, Interplak and the manual toothbrush.
In this regard in a 12-month study with periodontal maintenance patients, did report that no gingival abrasions were noted in any of the study subjects using the Rota-dent instrument over the course of the clinical trial.
It is more likely that the low brushing force of the Rota-dent was due to its particular design features, i.e., the high bristle or filament density, the softness of the small diameter filaments, and the rotary, as opposed to oscillating action of the brush head. The Rota-dent utilizes bristles or filaments that are approximately one-half the diameter of bristles used in the construction of manual toothbrushes. This combination of features may encourage lower applied force to the handle, and may lead to a better utilization of the polishing agents in a standard dentifrice formulation than the other brush designs, including the manual instrument.
The most important point to be derived from this study is the observation that the cleaning efficiency of powered brushing instruments is not directly related to the relative abrasivity of the test instrument.