The toothbrush and gingival traumatic injury.

This paper explores, by means of clinical observation, toothbrush misuse and its relationship to gingival recession/clefting. The morphology of the lesions created is correlated with the vigor, duration, frequency and direction of the toothbrush abuse. In addition, histologic observations of biopsied tissue from different types of clefts and recessions are used as a basis for discussion of the possible pathogenesis of this type of lesion.