Anti-microbial Efficacy of Commercially Available Herbal Dentifrices on Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans

Dental caries is a multi-factorial disease .Various chemically derived antimicrobial agents are incorporated to dentifrices to curb cariogenic microorganisms. There has been renewed interest in naturally occurring products in recent years, the side effects encountered with the use of synthetic formulations led to the surge for novel alternatives. To compare the efficacy of herbal dentifrices on oral microflora using antibiotic susceptibility tests. Two strains of microorganisms- Streptococcus mutans, and Candida albicans were taken and incubated in Mutans media, Sabouraud Dextrose agar respectively. Different dilutions (1:5, 1:10, 1:15) of several brands of toothpastes with different compositions were made. Sterile discs were incorporated with equal amounts of prepared toothpaste formulations. Then these discs were placed equidistant to each other followed by plates were incubated for 24 hours. Zone of inhibition is found to be higher in Ayush (30 mm), followed by Dant kanti, Colgate vedshakti, Meswak, Dantajeevan and Dabur red showing inhibition zones of 26 mm, 24 mm, 17 mm and 14 mm respectively. Results show that herbal toothpaste formulations were effective in controlling the oral microflora. The antimicrobial properties of the six dentifrices concluded that almost all the commercially available herbal dentifrices had antimicrobial activity to some extent.