Title Home Use Of A Dental Water Jet For Treatment Of Gingivitis
Clinical Question In a patient with mild to moderate gingival inflammation, would irrigating with a dental water jet produce a better result or worse reduction in bleeding, plaque, and inflammation than flossing?
Clinical Bottom Line In the various measurements taken, irrigating with a dental water jet produced an equal or better outcome than flossing. (See Comments on the CAT below)
Best Evidence  
PubMed ID Author / Year Patient Group Study type
(level of evidence)
16305005Barnes/2005105 patients randomly assigned to 3 groupsRandomized Controlled Trial
Key resultsIrrigation with a dental water jet along with a manual toothbrush produced slightly better results than flossing and using a manual toothbrush.
Evidence Search ("Dental Plaque/prevention and control"[Mesh] AND "Irrigation"[Mesh]) AND "Dental Devices, Home Care"[Mesh] AND "water jet"
Comments on
The Evidence
One issue that I have with the study is that the group that flossed only used a manual toothbrush, while one group used a water jet and powered toothbrush and had the best results. There should have either been an extra group with a powered toothbrush and flossing or they should not have included any group with a powered toothbrush.
Applicability I think this would be applicable to a large number of patients. If more studies show that dental water jets can be a good alternative to flossing, it may be a good suggestion for patients with fixed dental devices in their mouth that make it hard to floss and might also contribute to poor compliance with daily flossing.
Specialty (General Dentistry) (Periodontics)
Keywords dental water jet; plaque; tooth brushing; oral hygiene
ID# 574
Date of submission 04/01/2010
E-mail lucior3@livemail.uthscsa.edu
Author Ricardo Lucio
Co-author(s)
Co-author(s) e-mail
Faculty mentor Kenneth Kalkwarf, DDS, MS
Faculty mentor e-mail KALKWARF@uthscsa.edu
   
Basic Science Rationale
(Mechanisms that may account for and/or explain the clinical question, i.e. is the answer to the clinical question consistent with basic biological, physical and/or behavioral science principles, laws and research?)
None available
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Comments and Evidence-Based Updates on the CAT
(FOR PRACTICING DENTISTS', FACULTY, RESIDENTS and/or STUDENTS COMMENTS ON PUBLISHED CATs)
by Natalie Frost (San Antonio, TX) on 07/13/2011
Repeated PubMed MESH search and results were validated with the most current research regarding this topic. Another clinical application for the use of waterjet, would be as an adjunct to proxy-brush use in periodontal disease patient’s with exposed root surfaces.