Evaluation of Additional Antiplaque and Antigingivitis effect of Mouth rinse and Dental Floss on routine Manual tooth brushing

Objectives: The present study was conducted to determine the additional plaque and gingivitis reduction achieved by mouthrinse and floss, when used individually as adjuncts to routine manual tooth brushing. Material and Methods: This randomized, examiner blind, parallel 3-cell study was conducted over a period of two months. At the initial visit, the gingival and plaque scores of 90 adult subjects were recorded using Loe and Silness Gingival index and Turesky, Gilmore, Glickman modification of Quigley Hein plaque index respectively. This was followed by a random allocation of the study subjects into 3 groups: toothbrush toothpaste; toothbrush toothpaste and mouthrinse; and toothbrush toothpaste and floss. Oral prophylaxis and the respective products were provided to all the study subjects, who were subsequently recalled after 15 days, 1month and 2 months for gingival and plaque examinations using the above mentioned indices. Results: At the end of 2 months, the mouthrinse and the floss groups showed 42.61% and 37.63% reduction in the mean plaque scores respectively as compared to 17.98% reduction in the toothbrush tooth paste group. The percentage reductions in the mean gingival scores among the mouthrinse and floss groups were 40.09% and 37.62% respectively as compared to the toothbrush toothpaste group which showed 31.43% of reduction. The difference was statistically significant (P