Fig. 2

Plaque areas before and after brushing and plaque removal rates. a All brushing instruments except for the manual toothbrush showed significant reduction of accumulated plaque in the fitting surfaces of implant-supported fixed dental prostheses. Note that the plaque areas before brushing did not differ significantly among the four instruments based on multiple comparison statistics. b No significant differences in plaque reduction were observed among the four instruments. *p < 0 .05; **p < 0.005