Prolonged oral reduction of Streptococcus mutans in humans after chlorhexidine disinfection followed by fluoride treatment

Abstract – The effect of oral chlorhexidine gel treatment supplemented with fluoride applications was studied in subjects with high salivary levels of S. mutans. In two experiments short-term treatment with a 1% chlorhexidine gel was followed by applications of either a 1% NaF gel daily for 2 weeks or a 1% NaF gel daily for 6 weeks supplemented twice with topical application of an 8% SnF₂ solution. The salivary numbers of S. mutans were lower in the test group than in the placebo group after 6 and 12 weeks in experiments 1 and 2, respectively, and considerably lower than the pretreatment values. The findings show that fluoride applications can be a valuable adjunct to chlorhexidine treatment for combatting S. mutans.