A student on clinic recommended mouthrinse for a patient who had caries. I was going to ask him to look up the evidence for this but forgot, so thought I'd do it myself...
By simply typing 'mouthrinse' into the TRIPdatabase and restricting to systematic reviews (I always start with these as they summarise all studies and if there aren't any that address my question begin searching for individual studies) I came up with a couple of relevant Cochrane reviews.
One found an advantage in using fluoridated mouthrinse in children / adolescents, with the benefit increasing as the caries rate increased even when fluoridated toothpaste was used. Fluoride mouthrinses for preventing dental caries in children and adolescents.
However, the other review suggested that whilst fluoridate mouthrinse may be beneficial it wasn't clear whether it was superior to fluoridated toothpaste alone. One topical fluoride (toothpastes, or mouthrinses, or gels, or varnishes) versus another for preventing dental caries in children and adolescents
In the patient we were discussing we were going to prescribe sodium fluoride 5000ppm toothpaste anyway (as opposed to the 1450ppm or so he has in his conventional toothpaste) so perhaps the benefit of adding fluoridated mouthrinse wouldn't be so great in this case.
By simply typing 'mouthrinse' into the TRIPdatabase and restricting to systematic reviews (I always start with these as they summarise all studies and if there aren't any that address my question begin searching for individual studies) I came up with a couple of relevant Cochrane reviews.
One found an advantage in using fluoridated mouthrinse in children / adolescents, with the benefit increasing as the caries rate increased even when fluoridated toothpaste was used. Fluoride mouthrinses for preventing dental caries in children and adolescents.
However, the other review suggested that whilst fluoridate mouthrinse may be beneficial it wasn't clear whether it was superior to fluoridated toothpaste alone. One topical fluoride (toothpastes, or mouthrinses, or gels, or varnishes) versus another for preventing dental caries in children and adolescents
In the patient we were discussing we were going to prescribe sodium fluoride 5000ppm toothpaste anyway (as opposed to the 1450ppm or so he has in his conventional toothpaste) so perhaps the benefit of adding fluoridated mouthrinse wouldn't be so great in this case.
