Aim: A comparative study for plaque removing efficacy between toothpaste, liquid handwashing soap, and two chemical-soak denture cleansers (clinsodent denture cleansing powder and fittydent denture cleansing tablet).
Materials and methods: A total of 140 healthy complete denture patients were selected and checked for denture cleansing using toothpaste, liquid handwashing soap, and two chemical denture cleansers: Clinsodent powder and fittydent tablets. Cleansing with plain water was kept as control for twenty patients.
Results: The data were analyzed using Wilcoxon signed ranks test for checking the efficacy. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used for comparing the plaque removing efficacies of each denture cleanser used in the study. All four denture cleansers were significantly effective in removing plaque when compared with plain water, but there was no significant difference among them.
Conclusions: There was no significant difference among action of four denture cleansers used in this study. Thus we can infer that patients can use liquid handwashing soap or commercial products to overcome disadvantages of toothpastes. Recommendation from the results of this study is the use of liquid handwashing soap for cleansing after every meal and soaking of the denture in commercial denture cleanser during the night.
Keywords: Clinsodent powder; denture plaque; fittydent tablet; liquid handwashing soap; tooth brush; toothpaste.