Participants
The present double-blinded parallel randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted at Shahid Beheshti School of Dentistry, after it was approved by the committee for ethics in research, school of dentistry, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (IR.SBMU.DRC.REC.1399.033). The study design was in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of Human Rights and was also registered in the “Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials” (IRCT20210414050964N1) on 21/06/2021. Each participant was included in the study after reading, understanding, and completing the written informed consent document.
Approximately 200 dental students (18-30 years old) were screened by routine dental examination and finally, 60 participants were chosen for the study. All participants had a history of routine daily toothbrushing with fluoride-containing toothpastes. The exclusion criteria included the following: having a periodontal pocket depth of more than three millimeters, receiving antibiotic or anti-inflammatory drugs during the past month prior to the study, history of systemic diseases, allergic reaction to the toothpaste, smoking, having orthodontic appliances, or presence of untreated dental caries.
Sample size
The sample size was calculated based on previous studies to be 26 in each group (α = 5% and power=80%), which was increased to 30 to improve the validity of the study and compensate for possible sample loss during the follow-up period [19, 20].
Clinical procedure: The participants were randomly assigned into the control and case groups (allocation ratio= 1:1), to use the conventional non-herbal toothpaste (Crest® Complete, Procter & Gamble Plaza, Cincinnati, United States), and the Bamboo salt toothpaste (Tiger Herb®, LG, Korea), respectively. Randomization was performed using a random table number by Microsoft Excel (Microsoft®, Washington, US). The composition of examined toothpaste types is listed in Table 1.
The information labels on all toothpaste tubes were removed and their packages were all designed similarly, to ensure the blinding of participants to the contents of toothpaste tubes.
All participants were instructed to brush their teeth with a medium bristled brush (Oral B Pro Expert Brush, Procter & Gamble, United States) for two minutes using the Bass technique twice a day (after breakfast and before bedtime) for four weeks [21], using the designated toothpaste type. They were also instructed to use non-fluoridated dental floss (Oral B essential floss, Procter & Gamble, United States) every night before going to bed, and refrain from using other fluoride-containing products.
Saliva sampling
Saliva sampling in both groups was performed at baseline and after four weeks of toothpaste use. At both time points, samples were collected before breakfast and one hour after toothbrushing with a medium-bristled brush (Oral B Pro Expert Brush, Procter & Gamble, United States) without any toothpaste, followed by drinking a cup of water. The participants were asked to sit for five minutes while the saliva was being accumulated in their oral cavity. Two milliliters of unstimulated resting saliva were then collected using disposable syringes (Ulticare insulin syringe, Ultimed, Minnesota, USA) and transferred into sterile microtubes (SPL life sciences, Korea). Thereafter, the microtubes were coded, stored in ice containers, and immediately transferred to the laboratory of microbiology.
Microbiological studies
The saliva samples were diluted by 1/10 and then they were transferred to the Mitis Salivarius Agar (MSA) and MRS-Agar (MRS-A) containing plates (Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany). All plates were then incubated at 37 ºC for 24-48 hours (Memmert, Hong Kong) (Table 2). Colonies of Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus were counted after gram staining, using an automatic colony counter (Scan® 500, Interscience, Saint Nom, France) by two experienced microbiologists who were “blinded” to the administered toothpaste type. The inter-examiner reliability was determined using the Kappa agreement coefficient (k=0.9).
Statistical analysis
Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software version 25 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) (α = 0.05) (confidence interval=95%). The logarithm of colony counts was calculated. Numerical data were presented as the mean and standard deviation (Mean ± SD). The normal distribution of data was assessed by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Independent samples t-test and Paired samples t-test were used for inter-group and intra-group comparisons, respectively.
Table 1
List of ingredients in the two toothpaste types.
Toothpaste type | Ingredients | Manufacturer |
Tiger Herb® | Bamboo Salt, Hydrated Silica, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizinate, Sodium Fluoride, Sorbitol Solution (70%), Cellulose Gum, Sodium Saccharin, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Bisulfate, Blue 1 (E142090), Yellow 10 (47005) Flavor, Water. | LG, Korea |
Crest® Complete | Aqua, Sorbitol, Hydrated Silica, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Cellulose Gum, Aroma, Zinc Citrate, Chondrus Crispus Powder, Sodium Fluoride (1450 ppm), Sodium Saccharin, Hydroxyl Ethylcellulose, Cl 77891, Sodium Citrate, Stannous Chloride, Silica, Glycerin and Cl 74160. | Procter & Gamble Plaza, United States |