Efficacy of a prebrushing rinse in reducing dental plaque.

A double-blind parallel design controlled clinical trial was conducted to determine the effect of rinsing with Plax prebrushing rinse on supragingival plaque when used alone and when used just after toothbrushing. One hundred-three (103) subjects refrained from oral hygiene measures for 24 hours. Following a baseline plaque examination, subjects were randomly assigned to either a Plax or to a placebo group, rinsed with 15 ml of their respective rinse for 30 seconds, and were rescored for plaque (postrinse evaluation). Subjects then rinsed again with their assigned rinse, brushed immediately with water for 15 seconds, and were rescored for plaque (postbrush evaluation). Rinsing alone reduced plaque from baseline by 9.0% for Plax and by 10.7% for control. Plax and the control rinse followed by brushing both significantly reduced plaque area scores from baseline by 39.6% and 36.3%, respectively. There were no significant differences between Plax and control mouthrinse in reducing plaque area scores, whether used alone (postrinse) or used just prior to brushing for 15 seconds with water (postbrush evaluation). Use of Plax therefore did not increase the plaque removing efficacy of toothbrushing.