Method: Two groups of twelve subjects each brushed their teeth either with amine fluoride (AmF), or with sodium fluoride (NaF) containing dentifrice. The tongue coating and the oral biofilm of the cheeks, palate and mouth floor was removed using commercially available cotton stabs before (T0), immediately (T1), 30 (T2) and 120 (T0) minutes after tooth brushing. The bacterial viability was determined with Backlight life/dead staining. Photographs were converted into binary black & white and the black pixels were counted. The data were evaluated statistically using the Wilcoxon test for related variables and post hoc Bonferroni adjustment. Analysis of variance was conducted with one way ANOVA.
Result:
Results: Analysis of variance for tongue, palate, cheeks and oral floor showed, that after tooth brushing larger quantity of living and dead bacterial was present in the tongue coating. In the NaF group at T2 the amount of living bacteria was ca. 10 fold less than dead in the tongue coating (p=0.019) and in palate (p=0.004), at T3 in the cheek (p=0.028); respectively, in the AmF group ca.1.7 fold (p=0.046), ca. 3 fold (p=0.028) and ca. 2 fold but not statistically significant. In the mouth floor in the NaF group the quantity of living bacteria at T3 was ca. 5 fold and in AmF group ca. 2 fold less but not statistically significant.
Conclusion: The dynamics of the bacterial viability before and after tooth brushing is different in the various compartments of the oral cavity. Bacterial viability decreased after tooth brushing in all oral areas with a following increase and depends upon the dentifrice formulation. NaF containing dentifrice was more effective than AmF