European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Plaque- induced gingivitis is a highly prevalent periodontal disease. It is caused by formation of microbial biofilm on the tooth surfaces, poor oral hygiene. Treatment of plaque induced gingivitis concentrates more on plaque control by various methods. The purpose of the study was to conduct a systematic review of efficacy of daily rinsing with piper betel extract mouthwashes in terms of Plaque Index (PI), and/ or Gingival Index (GI) as compared to other mouthwashes in plaque-induced gingivitis.an electronic search was carried out using the key words ‘herbal mouthwash’ ‘ piper betel’ ‘anti-gingivitis effect PubMed/Medline, ISI Web of Science and Google Scholar databases for relevant articles published from 2014-2019. The addressed focus question was: Is herbal mouthwash effective as an anti-plaque or anti gingivitis agent than other chemical mouthwashes? Following the removal of the duplicate results, the primary search resulted in 20 articles and twelve articles were excluded based on title and abstract. Hence, 9 articles were read completely for eligibility. After exclusion of 2 irrelevant studies, seven articles were included. Mostly RCT’s, all are human studies. Conclusion: Herbal mouthwashes like Piper Betel mouthwash can be used as an adjunct to various oral hygiene practices like tooth brushing, flossing. Its proven that they have effective anti-inflammatory, anti-plaque properties and hence can be used in supportive periodontal therapy. It does not contain alcohol, artificial preservatives, flavours or colours. Hence Piper Betel based mouthwashes can be considered an alternative to chemical mouthwashes in sustaining oral hygiene, especially because of the added advantages provided by herbal preparations.