A 3-month home use study comparing the oral hygiene and gingival health benefits of triclosan and conventional fluoride toothpastes

A number of triclosan toothpastes are available which have been shown to benefit gingival health when compared to triclosan free control formulations. There have been few studies to compare such active products with conventional fluoride toothpaste products. The aim of this study was to compare, in home use, a triclosan product with conventional fluoride products already found to show slightly less plaque inhibition in a short term plaque regrowth study. The study was a single-blind, parallel design with a total of 129 healthy dentate volunteers (32 male, 97 female) who toothbrushed with one of 4 toothpaste products at home, twice a day over a period of 12 weeks. At the beginning of the trial, each volunteer was scored for plaque and gingivitis and then received a thorough prophylaxis. Each volunteer was allocated a toothpaste according to a predetermined randomisation scheme. The volunteers were re-examined after 6 and 12 weeks. The volunteers refrained from using any other oral hygiene products during the period of the trial. The toothpastes tested were two conventional fluoride toothpastes, a children's fluoride toothpaste and a triclosan/copolymer toothpaste. Results indicated that there were no overall significant treatment differences for either plaque index or gingival index and ordering of toothpastes was not possible. All volunteers' oral hygiene and gingivitis improved following the 6-week period and continued to improve to the 12th week. This is a feature of most oral hygiene trials and presumably arises from the initial prophylaxis and a Hawthorne response of improved toothcleaning by the subjects. It must be concluded from this study that in normal home use the triclosan/copolymer toothpaste provides oral hygiene and gingival health benefits no greater than achievable with conventional toothpaste products.