Antiplaque Efficacy of Toothpaste - A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Background: Different toothpastes of the corresponding active ingredients could have variable extent of effectiveness; this raises the amount of choices with the marketplace for toothpaste containing these agents and makes it more difficult to gauge their effectiveness. Therefore, the purpose of this systemic review and meta-analysis was to gauge the antiplaque efficacy of different toothpaste agents in studies involving randomized clinical trials published over a span of January 2015-May 2020. Materials and Methods: A comprehensive and systematic electronic search via PubMed, TRIP, Cochrane, and Google scholar prompted in 593 articles. Subsequently screening titles and abstracts for applicability, 31 Randomized controlled trial (RCT) articles were enclosed in the review. With the aid of the Cochrane Collaboration's tool, the risk of bias of each study was assessed. Results: A total of 2467 individuals partake in 31 RCT studies. Triclosan toothpaste was superior over sodium fluoride/monofluorophosphate toothpaste (standard mean difference, SMD - 1.36, 95% confidence interval [CI] (2.81-0.10), P = 0.007) in plaque reduction. Long-term utilization of stannous fluoride toothpastes reduced dental plaque superior than monofluorophosphate toothpaste (SMD - 0.61, 95% (CI 1.04-0.18), P = 0.005). There was no discernible difference in plaque reduction. Conclusion: Within the confines of the current study's limitations (which embody the severe imbalance within the quantity of evidence), once scrutiny among products, triclosan and stannous fluoride in dentifrices seem to be the foremost efficacious plaque controlling active agents.