Relationship between handedness and toothbrush-related cervical dental abrasion in left- and right-handed individuals

Abstract

Background/purpose: Cervical tooth abrasion is the loss of tooth material at the cementoenamel junction, and is usually related to faulty brushing habits. In this study, we attempted to evaluate the effects of handedness on tooth-brushing abrasion in terms of brushing habits in left-and right-handed adults. Materials and methods: In total, 488 subjects participating in the study were divided into 2 groups according to hand preference (group I; left-handed and group II; right-handed), and were interviewed about their brushing habits, and their clinical oral conditions such as the plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), and tooth wear index (TWI) were determined. Handedness was determined by a questionnaire that focused on handedness using the Turkish version of the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Results: This study showed that there were no statistically significant differences between groups I and II according to daily tooth-brushing habits, PI, or GI. Statistically significant differences were found between men and women according to the clinical oral scores and brushing habits (P < 0.01). However, there were no statistically significant differences between the mean TWI scores of left-and right-handed groups (P Z 0.12). It was found that an increased frequency and longer duration of tooth-brushing significantly increased the TWI scores in both groups (P < 0.01). It was also found that TWI scores were statistically higher in subjects who brushed horizontally rather than vertically (P < 0.01). Correlations between clinical oral scores (TWI, PI, and GI) and brushing habits were statistically significant (P < 0.01). Conclusion:The oral-hygiene performance of females was better than males. Brushing habits of patients were related to the severity of cervical wear. But no statistically significant relationship was found between hand preference and tooth-brushing abrasion in this study.

A cross‐sectional study of dentine sensitivity in periodontitis patients in Trinidad and Tobago

“…The premolars and canines were the next categories of commonest involved teeth, with increased frequency on the mandibular right and the maxillary left areas for both the buccal and lingual/palatal aspects. All patients in this study were right‐handed, but the literature fails to show a significant correlation of handedness with abrasion distribution . There were also smaller peaks in numbers at the first molars, which is also in keeping with that reported in two periodontitis studies .…”

Evidence for the occurrence of gingival recession and non‐carious cervical lesions as a consequence of traumatic toothbrushing

“… [6], Özgöz et al. [6]) and toothbrushing method (Bergström & Lavstedt [5], Bader et al. [6]) are important factors in the development of NCCLs.…”

“…, Özgöz et al. , Brandini et al. ) whereas four studies reported both positive and negative statistically significant relationships with NCCLs (Bergström & Lavstedt , Bergström & Eliasson , Bader et al.…”

“…, Özgöz et al. ), one study scored 5 (Bergström & Lavstedt ), 6 studies scored 4 (Radentz et al. , Bergström and Eliasson , Piotrowski et al.…”

The Prevalence, Characteristics and Risk Factors in Non-Carious Cervical Lesion: A Survey on 295 People in Guangzhou Area

“…One study of 106 subjects reported that more lesions were found on the left side of righthanded subjects, but the difference was not statistically significant. Mehmet et al [25] showed that no statistically significant relationship was found between hand preference and tooth-brushing abrasion. In this study, we found that an increase in the frequency of cervical lesions in patients of right-handed with no statistically difference between the left and right side of mouth.…”