Inhibition Of Stain By Some Commercially Available Oral Hygiene Products

Side effects such as abrasion of the dental hard tissue have been frequently observed following the extensive use of mechanical cleansing. As promising antiseptics like chlorhexidine produces extrinsic dental staining on long term usage, there has been increasing interest and research generated towards chemically based stain removing agents. This in-vitro study examined whether some commercial oral hygiene products could inhibit chlorhexidine derived stain independent of any mechanical cleansing action. Perspex blocks were soaked in triplicate in chlorhexidine solution for 2 minutes and stain inhibition by these products was determined by further soaking the blocks in products water slurries for 2 minutes and finally in tea solution for 1 hourly periods. The optical density (OD) of each specimen was determined at each hourly interval by spectrophotometry at 395 nm and the mean values obtained. At the end of the study, most of the products inhibited stain compared to water control and there was a variation in the stain inhibiting efficacy of the products. It is thus concluded that oral hygiene products like dentifrices and mouthrinses can inhibit chlorhexidine derived extrinsic dental stain to a variable degree through a chemical action by contained ingredients.