Comparing the efficacy of chlorine-dioxide with commonly used oral antiseptics

Objectives: To compare the disinfectant efficacy of the recently developed hyper-pure and stabile 0.12% ClO2 solution (Solumium) with other well-known antiseptic rinsing agents of root canal and oral cavity on selected pathogen microorganisms in vitro. ClO2 is an ideal antiseptic, as it kills the microorganisms effectively, without having the microbes to develop resistance against it. Furthermore, ClO2 is harmless for the human body if used in small quantities needed for disinfection and it can penetrate with several tenths of mm into the human tissues. Methods: The antimicrobial activity of oral antiseptics: Solumium, NaOCl (5.25%), Corsodyl, Listerin, were compared to the gold standard phenol on Streptococcus mutans, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Enterococcus faecalis, Veillonella alcalescens, Eikenella corrodens and Candida albicans. The microbiocide activities of the test compounds were expressed with the phenol coefficient, which is the ratio between the dilution of the test solutions and the dilution of phenol at which the compounds kills the test organism in 10 minutes, but not in 5 minutes. Same amount of bacteria (approximately 105 CFU/ml) and 10 µl from each dilution of test solutions were inoculated on blood agar (anaerobs in anaerobic environment) and incubated at 37°C for 24 hours. Each measurement was repeated in five parallels. Results: All investigated antiseptic agents were more effective than phenol itself in all cases. Among the mouthwash solutions, ClO2 was the most effective agent (533x dilution/phenol dilution (d/phd)) in contrast with Corsodyl (333x d/phd) and Listerin (13x d/phd) on S. mutans. As root canal rinsing solution again, ClO2 was the more powerful agent (1250x d/phd) as compared to NaOCl (112x d/phd)on E. faecalis. Conclusions: Our investigation demonstrated that Solumium solution is more effective than the other currently used disinfectants. Solumium is a new promising preventive and therapeutic adjuvant in dental practice. Support:Faculty Research Application FOK/DH/3-5/2011