An In Vivo Study to Evaluate the Efficacy of Aloe-Vera and 0.2% Chlorhexidine Digluconate as Preprocedural Mouth Rinses for Disinfecting Alginate Impression

ABSTRACT

A total of thirty subjects was selected. For each individual subject, 3 impressions of maxillary arch were made using alginate. Impressions were divided into three categories. First impression (Group 1) was made without using any preprocedural mouth rinse. After the impression was made, a sterile cotton swab was wiped over the impression surface and sent for culture sensitivity test. This swab acted as the control group. The swab was then run over the Blood Agar culture medium. The incubation of culture-medium plates was done for 24 hrs. at 37 °C. From the culture plate, smear was taken to examine bacterial growth and the colony forming units were counted on the slide. 24 hours after initial impression, the second impression (Group 2) was made after making the subject rinse with aloe vera for 30 seconds. After 48 hours after Group 1, third impression (Group 3) of the same subject was made, making the subject rinse with 0.2% chlorhexidine digluconate solution for 30 seconds. Rest of the steps were same for both the impressions as the first impression.Data was recorded and analysis for difference in the bacterial count between Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3 was done using ANOVA with post-hoc Bonferroni test from SPSS version 18. ResultsThe result showed an overall significant difference in the mean CFU among the three groups. Post-hoc test showed that group 1 had significantly higher mean CFU (7.54) than group 2 (2.98) and 3 (1.82). The least bacterial count was seen in the samples in which chlorhexidine digluconate was used as a mouth rinse before making the impression. The mean percentage reduction in bacterial count was 60.33 in the group for which aloe vera was used and 75.81 in the chlorhexidine digluconate group. Conclusions0.2 % chlorhexidine digluconate when used as preprocedural mouth rinse for 30 seconds markedly reduces the bacterial growth of aerobic culture. Although Aloe vera does have an antibacterial effect when used as preprocedural mouth rinses when compared with 0.2 % chlorhexidine digluconate, it is a weaker disinfectant. The antibacterial activity of 0.2 % chlorhexidine digluconate is more effective than aloe vera (99.9 %) when used as preprocedural mouth rinse.