EC Paediatrics

Pediatric oral hygiene has been a topic of great concern due to the continuing prevalence of oral diseases, such as dental caries. Additional challenges such as orthodontic brackets among pediatric patients have further complicated these efforts to improve oral hygiene and reduce caries lesions. Many methods of improving dental hygiene, including mouth washing, flossing and tooth brushing have been evaluated through the use of systematic reviews and meta analyses. However, some of these methods, such as the use of powered or electric toothbrushes have been less well studied among pediatric patients with orthodontic brackets. To address this deficiency, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses (PRISMA) protocol was utilized to screen peer-reviewed articles from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) using the PubMed database. From the independent, blind reviewers n = 660 peer-reviewed articles were identified from these searches. Applying detailed exclusion and inclusion criteria, a total of n = 19/660 or 2.9% were included in the systematic review and meta analysis. These studies published between 1996 and 2023 encompassed a total of n = 965 patients, which revealed an average relative effect (RE) in plaque reduction of 18.7% comparing powered or electric toothbrushing with manual toothbrushing controls.

 Keywords: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses (PRISMA); National Library of Medicine (NLM); Relative Effect (RE); Plaque Reduction

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