Clinical assessment of curcumin containing herbal toothpaste in patients with chronic gingivitis: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

            The purpose of the study was to compare and valuate the aftereffect of herbal toothpaste containing curcumin and conventional dentifrices on chronic gingivitis. The sample consisted of 40 subjects randomly assigned into two groups. Participants were advised to brush their teeth twice daily for 4 weeksemploying modified bass technique, with test group receiving curcumin-containing herbal toothpaste and control group receiving non-herbal toothpaste. Oral examination was performed at baseline, 2^nd week and 4^th week and the clinical parameters examined were Plaque index(PI), Gingival index(GI) and Papillary bleeding index(PBI) .The intra-group comparison of theclinical parameters in the  test and control groupsat 2^nd and 4^th week intervals showed a significant reduction(p = 0.0001). The inter-group comparison of PI and GI at 2 weeks was statistically significant in both the groups (p = 0.043, p = 0.020) whereas there was no statisticallysignificant difference in  PBI mean valuesat 2^nd and 4^th week (p value= 0.086, p value= 0.102). In conclusion, curcumin-containing herbal toothpaste was found to be as effective as conventional toothpaste, with the obvious added benefit of being a naturally derived safe agent for plaque removal.