Antimicrobial effectiveness of Nano Silver Fluoride Varnish in reducing Streptococcus mutans in saliva and plaque biofilm when compared with Chlorhexidine and Sodium Fluoride Varnishes

Nandita Waikhom; Nidhi Agarwal; Zohra Jabin; Ashish Anand

doi:10.4317/jced.59093

Antimicrobial effectiveness of Nano Silver Fluoride Varnish in reducing Streptococcus mutans in saliva and plaque biofilm when compared with Chlorhexidine and Sodium Fluoride Varnishes

J Clin Exp Dent. 2022 Apr 1;14(4):e321-e328. doi: 10.4317/jced.59093. eCollection 2022 Apr.

Authors

Nandita Waikhom¹, Nidhi Agarwal², Zohra Jabin³, Ashish Anand⁴

Affiliations

¹ Post Graduate student, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Institute of Dental Studies and Technologies, Modinagar.
² Professor and Head, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Institute of Dental Studies and Technologies, Modinagar.
³ Professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Institute of Dental Studies and Technologies, Modinagar.
⁴ Reader, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Institute of Dental Studies and Technologies, Modinagar.

Abstract

Background: This in vivo study was done to investigate the antimicrobial effectiveness of Nano Silver fluoride, Sodium fluoride and Chlorhexidine when used as a varnish on Streptococcus mutans (S.mutans) in saliva and plaque biofilm.

Material and methods: 120 caries free subjects, aged 8-10 years were randomly assigned to four different groups (n=30) - group I: Control, group II: Chlorhexidine varnish (CHX), group III: Sodium fluoride varnish (NaF), group IV: Nano Silver fluoride varnish (NSF). Varnish application was done once at baseline. Saliva and plaque samples were collected at baseline (T0), at the end of 1 month (T1) and 3 months (T3) to evaluate S.mutans levels by culture method, optical density and PCR. OHI-S Index was also recorded for clinical evaluation.

Results: NSF, CHX and NaF were effective against S.mutans activity. The intragroup comparision of CFU/ml and OD/ml count showed a highly significant reduction from baseline to 3 months for all the 3 varnish groups (p=0.001). PCR result revealed that maximum reduction was seen in NSF and CHX followed by NaF group.

Conclusions: NSF reduces S.mutans level in both saliva and plaque biofilm and it is more advantageous than CHX and NaF as it has dual properties of acting as an antibacterial as well as a remineralizing agent. Key words:Chlorhexidine, Nano Silver fluoride, Sodium fluoride, S. mutans, varnish.