Is Tooth Brushing Alone Sufficient? A Clinical Study Evaluating How Oral Hygiene is Improved with the Usage of Oral Rinse and Dental Flossing Along Conventional Tooth Brushing

Aim: To determine whether tooth brushing alone is sufficient or not beside the additional usage of CHX oral rinse and dental flossing to obtain maximum OHI scoring. Study Design: Descriptive study Place and Duration of Study: Nishtar Institute of Dentistry, Multan from 1st October 2017 to 31st March 2018. Methods: A total of 360 patients were included. These patients were divided in three major groups, A, B, and C. Each group was divided into 12 sub groups with each sub group having 10 patients. Complete history was taken of every patient. Group A was directed about the manual tooth brushing technique to continue it for four months. The group B was instructed tooth brushing along the oral rinse chlorhexidinegluconate 0.2% twice daily for four months. The third group C was given the instructions of tooth cleaning with manual tooth brushing, oral rinse and use of dental floss. First follow up was observed after two months and the second was at the end of fourth month. The oral hygiene index (OHI) was measured by Debris index and Calculus Index. Results: ANOVA shows the p<0.05. Tukey HSD equation gives the value of 0.6884. It connotes that any two means that are more than 0.6884 are significantly different. F statistic obtained is more than 3.46. So the null hypothesis is rejected describing the variance among the groups. Conclusion: It is evident that all three modes of applications contribute much oral hygiene. The patients in the community should be guided and made aware of all these oral hygiene measures in order to get the optimum results in the good oral hygiene.