Investigation of antibacterial activities of herbal toothpastes in vitro streptococcus mutans on biofilm model

In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the antibacterial effects of twenty commercially available toothpastes in vitro. In recent years, the use of herbal toothpastes has increased due to the fact that they found safe and have no side effects when compared to chemical toothpastes. In this study, the antimicrobial effects of nineteen herbal and a fluoride toothpaste were investigated against Streptococcus mutans by using agar-well diffusion method. The effects of antibacterial toothpastes (Oral B, Agarta, Bioplante, Urtekram, Ersağ, R.O.C.S. Baby) were investigated on biofilm. For this purpose, diluted toothpastes were applied on the S. mutans biofilm layer formed in vitro on hydroxyapatite discs. After the experiment, the number of survival bacteria was calculated in cfu/ml. Images on discs were obtained by confocal miscroscope and scanning electron microscope. The data were analyzed statistically by IBM SPSS V22 program. In the study, a statistically significant difference was found between toothpaste groups in terms of viable bacteria numbers (p<0.05). It has been determined that Agarta and Bioplante toothpastes show better antibacterial activity than other herbal toothpastes. Agarta and Bioplante gave similar results to Oral B in terms of the number of viable bacteria remaining after the experiment. It is recommended that herbal toothpastes can be used safely in the prevention of tooth decay due to their positive effect on the responsible bacterias for caries formation.