The Effectiveness of Mouthwashes With Various Ingredients in Plaque Control: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Our study sought to present a solid comprehensive overview of the efficiency of active ingredients in mouthwash to control dental plaque.

Cochrane Library, the Library of Medicine, (MEDLINE-PubMed), Web of Science database core collection, the database of the American Dental Association (ADA) Center for Evidence-based Dentistry and Scopus database were used for our review and meta-analysis.

This was a systematic review that included papers with and without a meta-analysis on the efficacy of mouthwashes with various active ingredients in the control of dental plaque. In vitro and animal experiments were excluded from the study. Methodologic quality assessment was carried out with AMSTAR. The estimated plausible risk of unfairness was calculated according to the recording, reporting and methodologic quality of the selected systematic reviews per the PRISMA recommendations for systematic reviews.

580 initial hits were reported and 22 papers were chosen for the overview (kappa = 0.89; good agreement). Of these, 12 studies presented moderate methodologic consistency. In these studies, chlorhexidine (CHX) was the most beneficial in monitoring dental plaque data, and 4 meta-analyses showed that essential oils (EO) also had substantial antiplaque activity.

Descriptive and experimental studies have shown that CHX and EO have antiplaque activity that is useful in maintaining good oral hygiene.