Name : Angelina Betty Siburian

SIN : 200600129

CRITICAL REVIEW OF TOOTHBRUSH EFFICACY FOR PLAQUE REMOVAL

The article that will be reviewed is an article about toothbrush efficacy of

plaque removal. The main topics that will be discussed are the methods of the
research, the result, and the conclusion. This article is important to discuss so that
people know the effectiveness of a novel sonic toothbrush in reducing plaque and in
maintenance of gingival health when compared to a standard manual brush. Thus,
people can pick which one is better for the oral health.

The methods used in the research are block-randomized, examiner-blind,

two-treatment, parallel group, and single centre clinical investigation. A total of 84
subjects were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive either the Panasonic EW-
DL90 or an American Dental Association-endorsed manual toothbrush. Subjects
were instructed to follow a twice-daily brushing regimen without flossing. Plaque
levels and gingival health were assessed at baseline and after 1 and 3 weeks of
treatment using the Turesky Modification of the Quigley-Hein Plaque Index and the
Papillary Bleeding Score.

After using the recommended toothbrush model, subjects assigned to the

EW-DL90 group had significantly lower plaque levels after 1 and 3 weeks of
treatment than those in the manual group. On the other hand, regarding the
maintenance of gingival health, the EW-DL90 group had significantly lower gingival
inflammation scores after 1 week of treatment, but there was no difference between
groups after 3 weeks of treatment.

So basically, the conclusion of the research is The EW-DL90 toothbrush

safely and effectively removes more plaque than a standard manual toothbrush.
Also, the papillary bleeding scores were significantly lower in the sonic brush group
after 1 week of product use. After 3 weeks of product use, both treatment groups had
similar papillary bleeding scores almost returning to baseline values.

In my opinion, the author of the article doesn’t create a title that represents the
entire content of the text. According to the content of the article, it can be seen there
are actually 2 aims. However, what is written in the title is only one aim. Furthermore,
the author only writes the word "toothbrush" which refers to a manual toothbrush in
general instead of power brush.

Regarding the methodology, it is wise to use random respondents through

various selection processes, so that the results obtained are purely experimental.
The strength of the methodology section is that the author of the article presents the
process of selecting respondents using a diagram so that the reader can understand
the criteria that must be met by each respondent in order to participate in this
experiment.
 The structure of the article and the parts of the article, starting from the title,
abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion, to acknowledgments are
also in accordance with international standards. Furthermore, the author also
presents the results in tabular form, so that readers can compare one variable with
another. The authors also discussed the results of the research in detail and finally
concluded the research objectively.