EFFICACY OF DIFFERENT BRANDS OF MOUTH RINSES ON ORAL BACTERIAL LOAD COUNT IN HEALTHY ADULTS

Abstract

A laboratory test was used to assess the inhibition of growth of oral bacteria by three 
modern commercial mouthrinses containing either cetylpridinium chloride, CPC 
(Macleans(R)), phenolic compound (Colgate Plax(R)) or glycerin/triclosan (Listerine(R)); 
which were used unsupervised in a placebo-controlled study involving fortyfive healthy 
adults. Subjects were divided into 3 groups and their saliva samples were assessed for 
microbial counts at the beginning and the end of an eight-week period during which 
they rinsed with 10ml of mouthrinse for 15 seconds twice daily (morning and evening) 
in addition to their usual oral hygiene procedures.The results showed wide variations 
in their effectiveness: those containing CPC reduced oral microbial count significantly 
(P <0.05) than formulations based on phenols or glycerin/triclosan. This concludes that 
twice daily use of CPC- containing mouthrinses reduce oral microbial load counts in 
healthy subjects when used as an adjunct to their normal oral hygiene procedures. This 
also suggests that inhibitory power of CPC is greater on oral microbes than other 
numerous functions of commercial mouthrinses.