Effects of a chlorhexidine mouthwash on clinical parameters of gingivitis, dental plaque and oral polymorphonuclear leukocytes [PMN]

Abstract

Objective : His to log i cal fea tures of oral in flam ma tion in clude in fil tra tion of poly mor phonu clear leuko cytes [PMN], how ever stud ies have not ex am ined the ef fects of in ter ven tions mit i gat ing in flam ma tion on oral PMN. Meth ods : This dou ble - blind clin i cal study ex am ined the ef fects of rins ing with mouth washes for mu lated with chlorhex i dine [CHX], an in gre di ent widely uti lized in the den tal clinic in com par i son to a con trol on oral PMN rep re sent ing a novel mea sure of in flam ma tion. A con cur rent eval u a tion of den tal plaque and gin gi val in flam - ma tion us ing widely ac cepted clin i cal in dices was in cluded in the study. The study en rolled adult sub jects pro - vid ing in formed con sent, met study cri te ria and reg is tered gin gi val in dex scores of 1.0 or more at the screen - ing visit. Sub jects [n = 90; age range 19 – 58 years] com pleted a washout phase prior to base line eval u a tions for PMN and clin i cal as sess ments for den tal plaque and gin givi tis. Treat ments [CHX or a con trol mouth wash] were ran domly as signed to sub jects for twice - daily use for the next two weeks. Post - treatment eval u a tions sim - i lar to base line were con ducted af ter one and two week use of as signed treat ment. Re sults : At base line, no sta - tis ti cally sig nif i cant dif fer ences be tween treat ment groups for PMN or clin i cal in dices for den tal plaque or gin - givi tis were noted. Rins ing with CHX demon strated sig nif i cant re duc tions for PMN and den tal plaque, gin givi - tis in com par i son to the con trol group. Af ter one and two week use of CHX, PMN demon strated a 35.9% and 54.9% re duc tion re spec tively in com par i son to the con trol group rep re sent ing sig nif i cant dif fer ences [p < 0.05]. At the one and two week post - treatment eval u a tions, rins ing with CHX demon strated 15% and 25% re duc tions in gin givi tis re spec tively and were sig nif i cantly dif fer ent from the con trol [p < 0.05]. Rins ing with CHX also demon strated sig nif i cant re duc tions in den tal plaque of 15% and 19% at the one and two - week post - treatment eval u a tions re spec tively in com par i son to the con trol [p < 0.05]. The CHX group also demon - strated re duc tions in in ter prox i mal scores and reg is tered the low est fre quency of gin gi val in dex or den tal plaque scores on all oral sur faces. Con clu sions: Re sults out line an ob jec tive ap proach to eval u ate oral in flam - ma tion demon strat ing a large and sus tained re duc tion in oral PMN by CHX with these out comes nu mer i cally higher than a clin i cal in dex eval u at ing gin givi tis.