A new review, published in the Journal of Herbal Medicine, revealed that garlic extract could work as well as chlorhexidine, a common antiseptic mouthwash, making it a potential natural option for oral care.
During the study, researchers at the University of Sharjah compared garlic extract with chlorhexidine, which is widely used as the "gold standard" mouthwash. They noted that chlorhexidine is effective but can cause side effects like taste changes, numbness, burning, and staining of teeth and the tongue. Using it too often may also lead to antimicrobial resistance, making the mouth more vulnerable to harmful germs.
"A total of 389 articles were identified from six electronic databases in January 2024, and an additional 13 articles were included through manual citation searching. After removing duplicates and applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, only five articles were included," the authors wrote.
The researchers reviewed these five earlier studies to see how well garlic extract performs against chlorhexidine. They found that using a 3 percent garlic extract mouthwash for one week reduced mouth bacteria more effectively than a 0.2 percent chlorhexidine mouthwash.
"The effectiveness varied based on mouthwash concentration and duration of application, contributing to differences in outcomes," the authors noted. "Some studies favored chlorhexidine for maintaining higher plaque/salivary pH, while others reported garlic extract to be more effective at certain concentrations. However, garlic mouthwash may cause greater discomfort."
Notably, garlic extract has some side effects, such as a burning feeling and a strong smell, which might make some people hesitate to use it. But overall, these issues are usually milder than those caused by chemical mouthwashes.
The review concluded that garlic extract has strong antimicrobial effects and could be a useful alternative to chlorhexidine in some cases. However, the authors stressed that more large-scale and long-term studies are needed before garlic mouthwash can be recommended as a reliable replacement for chlorhexidine.
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