Table 1.
Description of commonly recommended brushing techniques in the original publications.
Table 2.
Search term in PubMed-Medline.
Fig 1.
Flow chart of included studies according to the PRISMA 2020 statement [61].
Table 3.
Overview over main study characteristics.
Table 4.
Comparisons available for NMA regarding the primary outcome parameter: Plaque levels after toothbrushing.
Fig 2.
Results of the Risk of Bias (RoB) assessment with RoB2 [47].
Fig 3.
Results of the analyses regarding indirectness on the study level.
Fig 4.
Network graphs of the comparisons of techniques for plaque assessed after brushing at the last date of assessment after the intervention (primary outcome date) and the first date of assessment after the intervention (secondary outcome date).
The node size and the edge width represent the sample size, the node color and the edge color represent the RoB and the average RoB, respectively.
Fig 5.
Network estimates of the standardized mean differences and the respective 95% confidence intervals of the comparisons of techniques for plaque assessed after brushing at the last date of assessment after the intervention (primary outcome date) and the first date of assessment after the intervention (secondary outcome date).
Values outside the shaded area represent effects considered to be clinically important (SMD>0.2).
Fig 6.
Funnel plots of the effect sizes of the comparisons regarding plaque after toothbrushing at the last assessment after intervention (primary outcome date) and the first one (secondary outcome date).
Table 5.
Overview of the results of the NMA for plaque after toothbrushing.
Table 6.
Comparisons available for NMA regarding the secondary outcome parameter: Gingivitis.
Fig 7.
Network graphs of the comparisons of techniques for gingivitis at the last date of assessment after the intervention (primary outcome date) and the first date of assessment after the intervention (secondary outcome date).
The node size and the edge width represent the sample size, the node color and the edge color represent the RoB and the average RoB, respectively.
Fig 8.
Network estimates of the standardized mean differences and the respective 95% confidence intervals of the comparisons of techniques for gingivitis assessed after brushing at the last date of assessment after the intervention (primary outcome date) and the first date of assessment after the intervention (secondary outcome date).
Values outside the shaded area represent effects considered to be clinically important (SMD>0.2).
Fig 9.
Funnel plots of the effect sizes of the comparisons regarding gingivitis at the last assessment after intervention (primary outcome date) and the first one (secondary outcome date).
Table 7.
Overview of the results of the NMA for gingivitis.
Table 8.
Results of studies not available for NMA due to unavailable statistics or heterogeneity.