The effect of chlorhexidine and triclosan on undisturbed plaque formation for 72 hours duration

• Main Authors: Erry Mochamad Arief, Noor Dina Binti Adnan, Raja Azman Raja Awang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hasanuddin University 2010-04-01
• Series: Journal of Dentomaxillofacial Science
• Subjects: chlorhexidine, triclosan, dental plaque, undisturbed plaque
• Online Access: http://jdmfs.org/index.php/jdmfs/article/view/225

Plaque control is the main method for preventing periodontal diseases. Chlorhexidine ia a gold standard mouthrinse but it has a side effect which limits its use. Triclosan which does not have side effects was used to evaluate its efficacy against chlorhexidine. This experiment aimed to evaluate the effect of chlorhexidine and triclosan on undisturbed plaque formation for 72 hours. Two groups, chlorhexidine and triclosan, respectively consists of 14 volunteers refrained from all mechanical oral hygiene measures for the following 72 hours and rinsed instead twice daily for 1 minute with 15 mL of either chlorhexidine or triclosan. The plaque accumulation was assessed after 24, 48 and 72 hours using Modified Quigley-Hein Score. The median plaque score between both groups on day 1 was not significantly different (p= 0.625), but the score on day 2 and day 3 were significantly different (p= 0.007 and 0.017 respectively). The score between day 1 and day 3 on subjects using chlorhexidine was not significantly different (p= 0.109) unlike on subjects using triclosan (p= 0.003). The conclusion was chlorhexidine is more effective in controlling plaque formation compared to triclosan.