Evaluation of the efficacy of probiotics in plaque reduction and gingival health maintenance among school children - A Randomized Control Trial.

BACKGROUND

Probiotics are live micro-organisms that when administered in adequate amounts confer health benefits upon the host. The impact of probiotics on oral health is relatively new with lots of research going on; the area of probiotics and periodontal disease is still in its infancy. The aim of the present trial was to evaluate the efficacy of the probiotics in plaque reduction among school children.

MATERIALS & METHODS: This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled parallel design study involving 216 school children (aged 14 - 17 years): 108 as experimental subjects and 108 as controls. Complete oral prophylaxes were performed for both the control group and experimental group. The pre-intervention plaque index and gingival index were recorded one week after the prophylaxis for both groups as the baseline data. The study subjects (Group A) included curd in their daily diet for 30 days, while the control subjects (Group B) excluded curd in their diet for 30 days. The post intervention plaque index and gingival index were recorded again and statistically compared with the baseline data.

RESULTS

the intervention group (Group A) was found to have statistically significant reduction in plaque when compared to that of the control group with p <0.001 and there was no significant improvement in gingival health.

CONCLUSION

A short-term daily ingestion of probiotics delivered via curd in diet reduced the levels of plaque. Hence if it can be promoted in the regular diet, it would help in improving the oral health among school children. How to cite this article: Karuppaiah RM, Shankar S, Raj SK, Ramesh K, Prakash R, Kruthika M. Evaluation of the efficacy of probiotics in plaque reduction and gingival health maintenance among school children - A Randomized Control Trial. J Int Oral Health 2013; 5(5):33-7.