Do Anti-Cavity Mouthwashes Really Prevent Cavities?

With so many anti-cavity mouthwashes on the market, it is difficult to make a decision on which product is beneficial.

Anti-cavity mouthwashes are developed to improve dental health.

 

Some anti-cavity mouthwashes are to prevent infections caused by bacterial in the oral cavity caused by intraoral surgical procedures or cancer therapy. Most of the time, anti-cavity or antimicrobial mouth rinses have claimed as a way to reduce streptococcus mutans or oral bacteria.

There are few studies comparing mouthwashes.

The only three that are compared a few times are Crest Mouthwash by Proctor and Gamble, Act Mouthwash by Chattem and Listerine Mouthwash by Johnson and Johnson.

According to a study done by Proctor and Gamble, in vitro studies indicate that the Crest mouthrinse products evaluated here are capable of providing significantly better fluoridation of demineralized enamel, as well as significantly better protection against the initiation and progression of demineralization, compared to the other marketed fluoride-containing mouthrinse products tested.


Johnson and Johnson Consumer Personal Product Worldwide and Dental Product Testing and Therametric Technologies, Inc. did a similar study with their product and they claim that Listerine Advanced Defense Cavity Guard demonstrated superiority to each comparative rinse evaluated in promoting fluoride uptake.

A couple of studies that I could find both found that octenidine dihydrochloride compared favorably with chlorhexidine gluconate and polyvinylpyrrolidone for antiplaque/antigingivitis effectiveness.

The first study done by the Department of Orthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry at Süleyman Demirel University, in Turkey, found that mouthwashes with 0.1% octenidine dihydrochloride were more effective at reducing streptococcus mutans and all mouthrinse solutions, except Biotene, were effective on oral microorganisms. The results of a 3 month clinical trial by the Oral Health Research Institute at the Indiana University School of Dentistry, also showed that the group rinsing with 0.1% octenidine had significantly less plaque (39%), gingivitis (50%), and bleeding sites (60%) than the group using the control product.  I cannot find which, if any, mouthwashes contain octenidine dihydrochloride.

Essential oil-containing mouthrinse has superior antiplaque/antigingivitis effectiveness compared to the CPC-containing mouthrinse without mechanical oral hygiene influence.

 

Manual oral hygiene practices can definitely clean your teeth, however, mechanical or electric toothbrushes are far easier for many people and they don't abrade teeth as easily as a manual toothbursh.


One more study that I found by Brazilian Oral Research was a bit more specific.  Their study finds that two antimicrobial agents, a fixed combination of essential oils (EOs) and 0.07% cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) are found in commercially available mouthrinses, Listerine Antiseptic and Crest Pro Health, respectively.  This study demonstrates that the Listerine Antiseptic has superior antiplaque/antigingivitis effectiveness compared to Crest Pro Health without mechanical oral hygiene influence.


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