Study of the effectiveness of interdental brushes on the microflora composition of periodontal pockets

Objective. To improve the level of individual oral hygiene based on personalized selection of interdental brushes in patients with moderate and severe chronic periodontitis. Material and methods. The study included 42 patients with moderate and severe chronic periodontitis aged 35 to 65 years who underwent surgical treatment. Three groups were formed depending on the individual hygiene method: Group 1 — application of individually selected interdental brushes, Group 2 — self-selected brushes, and Group 3 — without the use of brushes. A web service was developed for selecting individual brushes, optimizing the documentation process and personalization of recommendations. Microbiological examination of periodontal pocket contents was performed using cultural analysis methods and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) before treatment, 2 weeks and 3 months after treatment. Results. Before treatment, the main isolated microorganisms were periodontopathogenic bacteria Prevotella intermedia (52.6%) and Porphyromonas gingivalis (33.8%), as well as representatives of oral microflora Streptococcus spp. (33.8%) and Lactobacillus spp. (21%). Three months after treatment, in patients using individually selected interdental brushes, the recovery rate of periodontopathogenic microflora Prevotella intermedia decreased to 14.3%, which was significantly lower compared to the group using uniform-sized brushes (42.9%) and the group without brush use (71.4%) (p<0.001). A similar trend was observed for Streptococcus spp., with recovery rates of 28.6%, 57.1%, and 85.7%, respectively. The OHI-S hygiene index after 3 months was significantly lower in the individually selected brush group (0.5±0.2) compared to the self-selected brush group (1.1±0.3) and the group without brush use (1.8±0.4). Conclusion. The use of individually selected interdental brushes provides improvement in oral hygiene status by reducing the recovery of periodontopathogenic oral microorganisms. The developed web service for individual interdental brush selection increases physician work efficiency and allows for the formation of personalized recommendations for patients.