Antibacterial efficacy of green tea mouth rinse in children with early childhood caries

Abstract

Purpose Of this study was to compare the antimicrobial efficacy of green tea (0.5%) mouth rinse to that of chlorhexidine (CHX) (0.125%) against Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacilli spp. Participants and methods Forty-two children had early childhood cairns were recruited in this study, and randomly divided, using lottery method, into three groups; group A: children using green tea mouthwash; group B: children using CHX (0.12%) mouthwash; group C: children using colored flavored nonsweetened tape water. They were instructed to rinse the mouth for 1 min using 5 ml of the respective mouth rinse 30 min after the tooth brushing for 2 weeks. A volume of 2 ml saliva samples were collected prior to the commencement of mouth rinsing, and after 2 weeks rinsing, data were collected and statistically analyzed. Results Revealed both CHX and green tea mouth rinses showed a statistically significant fall in the colony counts of S. mutans and Lactobacilli spp. (P < 0.001 and <0.001), while in the third group not statistically significant (P = 0.003 and 0.183) for S. mutans and Lactobacilli spp., respectively). When the antimicrobial efficacy of CHX and green tea was evaluated against both S. mutans and Lactobacillus spp., no statistically significant difference was found (P = 0.462 and 0.824, respectively).