Purpose: This study aimed to assess the efficacy of palatal brushing in the treatment of denture stomatitis.
Materials and methods: After screening 143 individuals with a potential diagnosis of denture stomatitis, 48 patients (mean age: 66.0 ± 11.2 years) were enrolled in a two-center phase 1 clinical trial with a one-group pretest/posttest design. The intervention of interest was manual palatal brushing after each meal and before bedtime. Clinical and microbiologic examinations were performed at baseline and 1 and 3 months after treatment. Additional data were obtained using a validated questionnaire. The primary and secondary outcomes were the remission of denture stomatitis and diminution of Candida colony-forming units (CFUs), respectively. Descriptive and nonparametric statistical tests were conducted to analyze the data.
Results: At the 3-month follow-up, denture stomatitis was completely cured in 10.4% of the participants, and 70.8% of denture wearers showed improvement in the clinical signs of denture stomatitis. There was a significant reduction in the area and severity of the palatal inflammation (P < .0001). The effect size ranged from medium to large (0.34 to 0.54) depending on the classification used for the diagnosis of denture stomatitis. A significant reduction in the number of Candida CFUs isolated from the palatal mucosa and dentures (P ≤ .05) was observed.
Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that palatal brushing is an effective treatment of denture stomatitis.