THE EVALUATION OF THE EFFICACY OF A STANNOUS FLUORIDE AND SODIUM HEXAMETA PHOSPHATE DENTIFRICE ON THE PLAQUE AND GINGIVAL INDEX

Purpose: the aim of this double-blind, cross-over designed study is to determine the effect of stannous fluoride/sodium hexametaphosphate (snf2/shmp) dentifrice on the plaque and gingival index values. subjects and methods: twenty voluntary dental students from suleyman demirel university faculty of dentistry have participated to the study. the “4-day regrowth model” was used. according to this method, the subjects have used the slurries (10 ml/3 g) of two commercial toothpastes (ipana expert® and ipana tam koruma®, procter & gamble, tr), klorhex mouthwash ® (drogsan, tr) and water two times a day without tooth brushing and other interdental cleaning methods. the plaque index (pi) and gingival index (gi) values were recorded at baseline and 4 days after. between the slurry periods, 3 days were left for the wash-out of the agents in slurries. in this wash-out periods brushing with water was allowed. results: the toothpastes with and without snf2/shmp have not shown significant differences in terms of pi and gi (p>0.05). the pi and gi values were higher at the fourth day in toothpaste slurries when compared to the klorhex mouthwash® period (p<0.05). conclusion: according to the “4-day regrowth model” snf2/shmp containing toothpaste slurry has not presented any superiority to the noncontaining toothpaste in terms of anti-plaque and antigingivitis effect within the limitations of our study group.