There is a constant debate is going in the background about the superiority of the power toothbrushes versus the manual toothbrushes. A systematic review was conducted by the Cochrane Collaboration Oral Health Group and published a report in this regard in January 2003. The researchers at Cochrane group selected the following criteria to compare the power versus manual toothbrushes; the toothbrush had a randomized design, they drew participants from a general population without any disabilities, they acquired data regarding plaque and gingivitis for a specified period. The results indicated that only the rotating oscillating toothbrush consistently provided a statistically significant, although modest, clinical benefit over manual toothbrushes in reducing plaque and gingivitis.

There are various models of power toothbrushes in the market as well as the manual toothbrushes. The main advantage of the power toothbrushes over the manual toothbrushes is that the power toothbrush can effectively produce greater number of brush strokes as compared to the manual toothbrushes. Usually the number of the strokes produced by the power toothbrushes enhances the cleansing power of such toothbrushes over and above the manual toothbrushes. The power toothbrushes can produce up to 41000 strokes as compared to the up to 800 strokes produced by the manual toothbrushes that makes the ultimate difference. Moreover some models of the power toothbrushes are able to produce vibratory action too, that makes the removal of the plaque very easy due to the fluid dynamics produced by such action. On the other hand manual toothbrushes are not capable of producing such movement thus the removal of plaque is quite difficult.

While using the manual toothbrushes the owner tends to exert more pressure while brushing as compared to the power toothbrushes. The power toothbrushes usually require use of minimal pressure for effective cleaning. Beside that you may remember that the dentists’ world over recommend the brushing of teeth for 2 minutes and while brushing manually this fact is overlooked most of the time. When you use the power toothbrush there is no such danger of forgetting any thing as the toothbrush is capable of remembering the duration by itself and it ably reminds you when to proceed to clean the next quadrant of your denture after a gap of 30 seconds as all of the power brushes incorporate a automatic timer in them.
The manual toothbrushes are very difficult to handle for the patients of arthritis, elderly, incapacitated and some of the children and to produce the brushing action is rather more difficult. But on the other hand the power toothbrushes provide the fittest solution to them as the movement of the head is automatic thus it is very easy to perform the task of the brushing by the above said group of people.

Considering the above factors and referring to the various studies it cn be safely concluded that the power toothbrushes are much better than the manual toothbrushes and days are not far when the power toothbrushes overshadow the manual toothbrushescompletely.