Effect of Oil Pulling on pH, Buffering Capacity and Total Antioxidant Capacity of Saliva in Children: A Randomised Control Study

Abstract

Introduction: Saliva is emerging as a diagnostic tool in the field of dentistry. The changes in salivary composition, its physical and chemical properties determine the state of both oral and general health. Chemical plaque control measures improve oral health, by effectively controlling the microbial load in the dental plaque and these agents are thought to alter the properties of saliva. Oil pulling with edible oils has proved to be an adjunct to routine oral hygiene methods to improve oral health. Aim: To evaluate and compare the effect of oil pulling therapy with sesame oil and virgin coconut oil with Chlorhexidine (CHX) gargling and plain water gargling on pH, buffering capacity, and total antioxidant capacity of saliva. Materials and Methods: A four armed randomised controlled study was conducted in 80 female children in the age group of 12-14 years from July 2019 to December 2019 in Department of Paediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Kannur Dental College, Anjarakandy, Kannur, Kerala, India. Children with mild to moderate gingivitis were selected and assigned into four groups to use different types of mouth rinsing (Group A: chlorhexidine, Group B: sesame oil , Group C: virgin coconut oil and Group D: plain water as control) for one month. Unstimulated whole saliva, collected from these participants were evaluated for the changes in pH, buffering capacity and total antioxidant capacity, at baseline and at 30 days. The data were tabulated and statistical analysis was done using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) (Post-hoc), followed by Dunnet’s t-test, using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 25.0 version. Tukey’s post-hoc test was done to identify the significant pairs. Results: The mean age of the study participants was 13.4 years. Intragroup comparisons showed there were statistically significant changes in the baseline to 30th day values of gingival index, values, antioxidant capacity and buffering capacity for all the experimental groups (p0.05). Conclusion: Oil pulling with coconut oil and sesame oil had equal effectiveness as CHX on the antioxidant capacity and buffering capacity of saliva.

Keywords

• gingivitis
• oral hygiene
• plant oil
• plaque control
• potential of hydrogen