Comparative Evaluation of the Plaque Inhibitory Effect of a Herbal Extract containing Fluoridated Dentifrice to a Fluoridated Dentifrice: A Clinical and Microbiological Study

Abstract

Aim: To clinically and microbiologically evaluate and compare the plaque inhibitory effect of commercially available herbal extract containing fluoridated dentifrice to that of commercially available fluoridated dentifrice in a healthy dental cohort. Materials and methods:A single-center, double-blinded, prospective, cohort, crossover study was conducted involving 25 healthy dental student volunteers meeting inclusion criteria. Two commercially available dentifrices: (Dentifrice A: Commercially available fluoridated dentifrice; and Dentifrice B: Commercially available fluoridated dentifrice containing Bromelain, Papain, Neem, and Meswak were selected as the test products. The study was conducted in two phases of 3 weeks duration each and a washout period of 1 week. Participants were assessed at baseline and 3 weeks using Plaque index (PI) and Gingival index (GI). At 3 weeks, a supragingival plaque was collected from the lingual surface of right mandibular first molar and microbial analysis was done. Microbiological counts were expressed as colony-forming units (CFU) per sample.Results: On intergroup comparison, it was observed that mean reduction in PI for Dentifrice B is significantly more than that of Dentifrice A (p-value: 0.000021). There was no significant difference between the mean reduction in the GI of both Dentifrice A and Dentifrice B (p-value: 0.3040). On intergroup comparison of CFUs obtained after 3 weeks, Dentifrice B showed significantly less viable CFUs than that of Dentifrice A (p-value: 9.42E-08). Conclusion:In the current study settings, it was observed that herbal extracts in dentifrices have an additive effect with fluoride in plaque inhibition.