A Comparative Analysis of the Effect of two Mouthrinses on the Accumulation of Biofilm on Dentures (original) (raw)

Introduction: One of the common problems among denture wearers is the formation of plaque on the surfaces of the dentures. For many patients mechanical denture hygiene measure may be insufficient to achieve plaque removal on the dentures hence the rationale for the use of mouth rinses. Thus, this study aimed at comparing the effect of two mouth rinses on the accumulation of biofilm on dentures. Methodology: Patients were selected through a simple random sampling method (balloting) and subsequently assigned into 3 study groups; chlorhexidine digluconate group(CHX), hexetidine group and control group (normal tap water) with each group consisting of 43 patients. All the patients attended thrice: day 1 (baseline), day 7 (1 st recall) and day 14 (2 nd recall). Stained surface analysis was done using Image processing software 2012 (Image J tool 3.0 for Microsoft windows). Further descriptive and inferential analysis was done using IBM SPSS version 20.0 and test of statistical significance was done using Analysis of variance (ANOVA). The confidence level was set at 95% and the P-value of 0.05 or less was taken as statistically significant. Result: Mean percentage biofilm coverage area for CHX group was 31.43%, hexetidine group was 29.58% while that of control group was 54.55%. The ANOVA result showed that the mean difference between percentage biofilm coverage area of CHX and hexetidine groups was not statistically significant (P=0.215), whilst the difference between the experimental groups (CHX and hexetidine) and the control group was statistically significant (P=0.001) Conclusion: The tested denture cleansing agents used in this study, CHX and hexetidine solutions were equally efficacious in reducing biofilm and were superior to the control agent (water).