Clinical efficacy and patients' acceptance of a rubber interdental bristle. A randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: Interdental cleaning is an essential component of home plaque control to prevent periodontitis and caries. There is limited data on the efficacy of commonly used metal-core interdental brushes in comparison to metal-free interdental brushes. The aim of this study was to compare a new rubber interdental bristle (Fuchs®) with a standard metal-core interdental brush (TePe®) for their impact upon gingival bleeding, plaque removal, and patient experience. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A single-blind, prospective, randomized, and controlled clinical trial with a crossover design was used to measure plaque index (Turesky-Modified Quigley & Hein Index), bleeding index (Eastman Interdental Bleeding Index by Caton & Polson), and patient satisfaction by means of questionnaires in 39 patients. Each patient was randomly assigned with regard to the sequence of interdental product used and recalled. RESULTS: Both groups showed statistically significant decreases of plaque after a single usage, respectively. Bleeding was statistically significantly reduced after 4 weeks, with no statistically significant differences concerning between the two tested interdental brushes. Rubber interdental bristles reached significantly higher scores with regard to patient acceptance in overall assessment and in sub-items for less pain during usage, comfort of brushing, and willingness to buy the product. CONCLUSION: Rubber interdental bristles were similarly effective compared to the interdental brushes. In addition, rubber interdental bristles were significantly more comfortable for participants than metal-core brushes. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Rubber interdental bristles can be used as an alternative interdental cleaning product which may be more accepted by patients.

When two become one: Electrocortical correlates of the integration of multiple action consequences.

In a recent study we have demonstrated that the feedback-related negativity (FRN) reflects the integrated value of instantaneous and delayed decision consequences (Osinsky et al. 2017). In the present work, we extend this research by using a novel choice task in which instant and delayed consequence values of a single decision outcome can be manipulated independently of each other in a trial-wise manner. Fifty-nine healthy participants completed this task while EEG was recorded. Twenty-two of them returned one week later for a retesting, allowing for investigating temporal stability of individual FRN indices. Our results show that the FRN mainly reflects the additively integrated value of instant and delayed outcome consequences. Individual differences in the FRN sensitivity to the two consequence dimensions were specifically predictive for consequence-driven adjustments in choice behavior and moderately stable over time. Altogether, our findings are inconsistent with the idea that the FRN reflects a simple binary distinction between favorable and unfavorable action outcomes. Rather, the FRN appears to mirror a fine-grained scaling of action outcomes, which results from stable personal reward preferences and which is used for adjusting choice behavior. Given that the FRN is generated in the anterior midcingulate cortex, our study adds to recent literature according to which this structure uses multiple information to learn complex action-outcome values.