Evaluation of zinc as an adjunct in chlorhexidine containing toothpaste on gingival and plaque index

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Bacterial plaque is the uppermost element in periodontal diseases. Chlorhexidine (CHX) is one of the utmost influential materials in chemical plaque control and ORTHOKIN is a toothpaste claimed to encompass CHX. Although there are various studies on efficacy of different types of CHX formulation in toothpaste, no literature has focused on the anti-plaque effects of toothpaste with CHX when zinc acetate is introduced in to chemical formula. Therefore, in the present study, we compared Crest ANTI-Cavity toothpaste with KIN gingival and ORTHOKIN toothpastes that contained CHX.METHODS: This controlled clinical trial study was conducted on 30 patients with gingivitis. To compare the anti-plaque activity and bleeding on probing (BOP) index of the toothpastes, the average BOP and plaque index percent was recorded 14-day post-brushing. BOP index and plaque index were measured by an experienced dentist blind to the study and were recorded at pre-scaling, post-scaling and post-brushing for each group. Analysis of variance and paired t-test was used to analyze the data.RESULTS: The average BOP in the 3rd meeting for the ORTHOKIN, Crest ANTI-Cavity and KIN gingival toothpastes was 10.54%, 12.15% and 10.60%, and the plaque index in the 3rd meeting was 32.22%, 50.35% and 27.80%, respectively. In these 3 groups, BOP did not have a reduction while the plaque index significantly differed between ORTHOKIN and KIN gingival compared to Crest ANTI-Cavity (P < 0.05).CONCLUSION: These results showed that the reduction of gingival inflammation in CHX contained toothpastes was the same as the toothpaste without CHX. The addition of zinc had no effect on the effectiveness of CHX.