The efficacy of a rubber bristles interdental cleaner on parameters of oral soft tissue health-a systematic review-

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Abstract

© 2021 The Authors. International Journal of Dental Hygiene published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Aim: This study aimed to establish the efficacy of a rubber bristles interdental cleaner (RBIC) as an adjunct to toothbrushing (TB) compared to that of the adjuvant use of other interdental cleaning devices and TB alone on plaque and gingivitis parameters. Additionally, the safety aspects and panellists’ appreciation were evaluated. Materials and Methods: Databases were searched for randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) evaluating plaque (PI), bleeding (BS), and gingival index (GI) scores, safety assessments, and participants’ appreciation. Extracted data were summarized in a descriptive and, if possible, a meta-analysis. Results: The search retrieved 142 unique papers; six studies with 10 comparisons were included in a descriptive analysis. Five RCTs compared RBICs with interdental brushes (IDBs), four with dental floss (DF) and one with manual TB only. No comparisons to wood sticks were retrieved. Using an RBIC resulted in no difference in plaque scores compared to DF and IDBs. For overall bleeding scores, no difference was found. Two studies analysing the accessible sites separately found RBICs to be more favourable than DF and IDBs. Conversely, one study evaluating the efficacy of RBICs compared to IDBs, according to the GI scores, showed that IDBs achieved significantly greater reduction. Moreover, RBICs caused fewer gingival abrasions and were preferred by the study participants. Conclusion: Based on a descriptive and a meta-analysis of the available literature, it is synthesized that in gingivitis patients, a weak to very weak certainty exists that a RBIC is indicated for gingivitis and plaque reduction. The evidence supports user safety and participants’ preferences.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)26-39
JournalInternational Journal of Dental Hygiene
Volume20
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not‐for‐profit sectors. For this study, no funding was accepted, except for support from the listed institution as work for this paper is funded by a regular academic appointment at the Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA) of Van der Weijden, Slot, Van der Sluijs and Hennequin‐Hoenderdos. To estimate the risk of bias in the included publications, the quality assessment included internal validity, external validity, statistical validity, and clinical and ethical aspects, as presented in online Appendix S1 . The estimated potential risk of bias was low for all publications. It was shown that the five ethical aspects were more frequently reported in the publications from the last decade compared to Study I from 2006. Three studies were funded by SUNSTAR America (I, III, V) and one study by the Italian Ministry of Health and the Tuscan region (IV). The funding of two studies is unknown (II, VI). All authors were affiliated academics. In four studies (II, III, IV, VI), the authors explicitly stated that they had no conflicts of interest. This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. For this study, no funding was accepted, except for support from the listed institution as work for this paper is funded by a regular academic appointment at the Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA) of Van der Weijden, Slot, Van der Sluijs and Hennequin-Hoenderdos. We would like to thank S. Kusumawidjaja and A.L.R. Hage, students of the Dental Faculty of ACTA, for their work on the bachelor thesis used to initiate this work. The authors also thank the colleagues who provided us with additional data: Prof. Dr. F. Graziani of the University of Pisa, Italy, and Dr. J. Wölber with help from Mrs. Kirstin Vach from the University of Freiburg, Germany.

FundersFunder number
Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam
SUNSTAR America
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Ministero della Salute
Università di Pisa

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