An alternative to dental floss in a personal dental hygiene program.

The concept of gingival massage on maintaining the health of the gingiva may be of value as an adjunct in the periodontal maintenance phase of treatment. This study compared dental floss to a test product, a massage device, in a randomized population of 20 male and female subjects. Clinical measurements were taken at baseline, week 3, and week 6. Patients were instructed to brush twice daily using their normal hygiene methods and to use the assigned product once daily. Plaque index (PI), bleeding index (BI) and pocket probing depths did improve in both the control and the test groups, but the differences did not favor either group over the other. The gingival index (GI) did, however, significantly decrease in the massage group, suggesting that this product may not only be an alternative to dental floss, but may provide added benefits from gingival massaging.