Purpose: To provide theoretical basis for children's oral health instruction and children's dental prophylaxis by comparing the plaque control efficacy and safety of Sonicare and manual toothbrush in 3-9 years old children.
Methods: One hundred and eighty healthy children were included in this study and were divided into 2 groups with 90 children in each group: aged 3-6 years and 6-9 years respectively. In each group, the subjects were randomly instructed to use either Sonicare for kids (SFK) or manual tooth brush (MTB). During a 28-day clinical trial period, oral hygiene was examined and plaque index（Rustogi modified Navy plaque index，RMNPI） was recorded at baseline, and at visits on the 7th and the 28th day (D0, D7, D28). The data were analyzed by R software.
Results: Both MTB and SFK could remove a certain amount of dental plaque. In the group of 3-6 years old children, the plaque reduction rates of children using SFK were 17.09%±14.4%(D0), 27.14%±11.4%(D7), 33.52%±18.3%(D28), respectively, which were significantly higher than that of children using MTB [11.86%±9.7%(D0), 11.83%±9.1%(D7), 13.73%±11.0%（D28）] (P<0.05). Similarly, in the group of 6-9 years old children, the plaque reduction rates of children using SFK were 20.05%±10.52%(D0), 22.76%±13.46%(D7), 22.31%±9.74% (D28), which were significantly higher than that of children using MTB [9.15%±7.07%(D0), 7.26%±6.81%(D7), 11.54%±8.27%（D28）] (P<0.05). Further analysis revealed that the plaque index was decreased gradually in 3-6 years old children using SFK after 3 months of follow-up (P<0.05). In addition, there was better compliance and safety in children using SFK.
Conclusions: Sonicare can remove plaque efficiently, and can control plaque and improve oral hygiene quality effectively in children in a long period, which implies that the application of Sonicare is worthy of promoting to control dental plaque in children.