Effect of green tea mouthwash on reducing plaque and gingivitis

Background and objective Extensive studies have been made on the natural mouthwashes with fewer side effects as an alternative to chemical ones The present study aimed to determine the efficacy of green tea and chlorhexidine mouthwashes on plaque and gingival indices Materials and Methods nbsp The present was a double blind clinical trial intervention study A total of dental students as patients from first to fourth semester at Shahid Beheshti Dental School were selected according to the inclusion criteria Plaque and gingival indices were evaluated The subjects were allocated to use placebo green tea and chlorhexidine mouthwashes for three courses ofthree days There was one week interval between each course Scaling and root planing were performed for all the patients After each course the desired parameters were calculated and data analyzed by nonparametric statistics e g Kruskal Wallis test Mann Whitney U test Wilcoxon using repeated measures Results At baseline and three days after the usage the mean plaque index was and in the green tea group and in the placebo group and and in the chlorhexidine group respectively Reductions in gingival index GI ranged from to in the green tea group from to in the placebo group and to in chlorhexidine group respectively It was found that green tea mouthwash could significantly reduce the plaque index as well as gingivitis There was no significant difference between chlorhexidine and green tea mouthwashes in reducing gingivitis However the use of chlorhexidine found to reduce plaque level more than the use of green tea mouthwash Furthermore in some of the subjects using chlorhexidine mouthwash tooth staining dental calculus observed Conclusion Chlorhexidine and green tea mouthwashes found to be effective in reducing plaque index and it has been shown to be equally effective in gingivitis reduction However the green tea and chlorhexidine mouthwashes were more effective than placebo Concerning gingival and plaque indices the green tea and chlorhexidine mouthwashes were minimally effective after h and h respectively