One brand is – the Braun Oral B plaque remover, according to a review published in April by the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.
That review, an analysis of 42 pooled studies involving 3,855 patients, was an update of a similar one published two years ago.
The new review showed that electric toothbrushes with a “rotation oscillation action” such as the Braun product removes plaque (the sticky stuff that collects on teeth near the gums and serves as food for bacteria) 11 percent more effectively than manual toothbrushes and reduced gingivitis (gum inflammation) 6 percent more effectively over a three-month period.
When studied for up to six months, the Braun product still fared well, yielding a 17 percent reduction in bleeding when gums were probed. The other six types of electric toothbrushes studied “offered no consistent advantage,” said the lead author, Dr. Peter Robinson of Sheffield University in England in an email interview. There was no statistically significant effect for plaque after three months, but it is unlikely that there would be a long-term benefit for gingivitis without an underlying change in plaque, too, he said.
Dr. Richard Niederman, director of the DSM-Forsyth Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry in Boston, said the new study was conclusive. “The only power toothbrush more effective than the manual is the Braun Oral B.”
But Cliff Whall, a medical physiologist who heads the “seal of acceptance” program for the American Dental Association, was less convinced. “There is nothing magical about a power toothbrush,” he said. If a person does things right – brushing with bristles angled toward the gum line twice a day and flossing once a day – a manual toothbrush can be just as good. “There no need for anyone to feel they are doing themselves harm by not using an electric toothbrush.”