"Triphala" - A New Herbal Mouthwash in Gingivitis

The present study was a randomized control clinical trial, which included 90 subjects with chronic generalised gingivitis of age group 25-40 years, reporting to outpatient department of Periodontics, Government Dental College \& Research Institute, Bangalore form January 2013 to April 2013. The research protocol was initially submitted and approved by the Institutional Ethical Committee and Review Board of the Government Dental College and Research Institute, Bangalore. After ethical approval, all subjects were verbally informed and written signed informed consent was taken for participation in the study. Ninety subjects diagnosed with chronic generalized gingivitis were randomly assigned into three groups: Group I: Placebo mouthwash, Group II: Triphala (TRP) mouthwash, Group III: Chlorhexidine (CHX) mouthwash. Subjects were instructed to use mouth wash twice daily. The plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI) and oral hygiene index- simplified (OHI-S) and microbiological colony counts were recorded on baseline (B/L) and 7, 30 and 60 days respectively. TRP mouthwash was found to decrease the inflammatory parameters. As improvement in gingivitis was comparable to that of CHX mouthwash thus TRP mouthwash can be considered as a potential therapeutic agent in treatment of gingivitis.