Objective: To compare the effectiveness of commonly used herbal/non-fluoride with fluoride dentifrices in order to eliminate pathogenic oral microorganisms from denture base material.
Materials and methods: Heat-polymerized acrylic resin specimens (n = 288) were divided into three groups and each group inoculated with three various microorganisms (n = 96 for each) Candida albicans, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa). Contaminated specimens were randomly assigned to the application of six herbal/non-fluoride and three fluoride dentifrices. These specimens were divided into two groups: negative and positive control (n = 3 for each). All acrylic specimens were incubated at 37 °C for 24 h for samples inoculated with bacterial strains and 37 °C for 48 h for samples inoculated with yeast strains. After the incubation period, all brain-heart infusion broths that contained disinfectant acrylic specimens were cultured on 5% sheep blood agar for bacterial counts and Sabouraud dextrose agar for yeast counts. The number of colony-forming units per millilitre (CFU/mL) were calculated. The results were analysed by Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests (p = .05).
Results: Both herbal/non-fluoride and fluoride dentifrices were effective against Candida albicans. However, fluoride dentifrices were comparatively better than the herbal/non-fluoride dentifrices against Staphylococcus aureus and P. aeruginosa.
Conclusions: Herbal dentifrices could be used, especially among the elderly who lack a degree of manual dexterity during the rinsing of dentifrice chemicals from their dentures.
Keywords: Acrylic resin; gerodontology; microorganism.