Research on dental plaque removal methods for efficient oral prophylaxis: With a focus on air polishing and rubber cup polishing

Objectives This study was conducted to compare the plaque control effectiveness of rubber cup polishing with that of air polishing during oral prophylaxis procedures and to investigate the effect of the order of air‐polishing application on the efficiency of oral prophylaxis. Methods The study included adult patients (≥20 years of age) who had visited the dental clinic for oral prophylaxis. A total of 173 subjects were divided into three groups (scaling followed by rubber cup polishing, SR; scaling followed by air polishing, SA; and air polishing followed by scaling, AS) based on sex, age, oral health status, oral hygiene status, and indications and contraindications according to the oral prophylaxis method. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the difference in oral prophylaxis time, residual deposits rate, subjects and dental hygienist satisfaction. Results The total scaling time was shorter in the AS group (15.4 ± 6.9 minutes) than in the SA (18.7 ± 5.5 minutes) and SR groups (19.9 ± 6.2 minutes) (p