In vitro antimicrobial effects of commercially available mouth‐wetting agents |
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| Authors: | Pelin Güneri DDS PhD Esin Alpöz DDS PhD Joel B. Epstein DMD MSD Hülya Çankaya DDS PhD Mustafa Ates PhD |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Oral Diagnosis and Radiology, School of Dentistry, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey;2. Department of Oral Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry and Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, Chicago Cancer Center, College of Medicine, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois, USA;3. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey. |
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| Abstract: | Products have been developed to provide palliation for persons with dry mouth. In addition to mouth‐wetting agents, some products incorporate antimicrobial constituents with the goal of improving oral microbial defenses. The aim of this in vitro study was to investigate the potential antimicrobial and antifungal effects of two commercially available saliva substitutes on Streptococcus mutans, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Candida albicans by using the agar‐well diffusion method. Antimicrobial activity as measured by the size of the inhibition zone growth for S. mutans and L. acidophilus was observed only with Biotene Dry Mouth Oral Rinse® and BioXtra® gel. The zone of inhibition of Biotene Dry Mouth Oral Rinse was larger than that of BioXtra gel (p= 0.00, p < 0.01). No anticandidal effect was seen with any of the test products. The pH of the preparations, the variations between the amount of active ingredients within the products, and the potential antimicrobial effects of inactive ingredients should be investigated to determine the factors that impacted microbial inhibition. |
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| Keywords: | dry mouth saliva substitutes antimicrobial effects oral rinse oral gel |
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