title: Effects of Green Tea on Streptococcus mutans Counts- A Randomised Control Trail.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mouth rinses have been in use from time immemorial as a supplement for routine oral hygiene. There are many number of mouth rinses currently available in the market in which many of them possess certain drawback, which has necessitated the search for alternate mouth rinses.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of rinsing with green tea in comparison with chlorhexidine and plain water on Streptococcus mutans count.
  
  
  METHODS
  A short term, single blinded, cross over randomised control clinical trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Study includes a total of 30 subjects aged 20 to 25 years divided into three groups that is green tea group, chlorhexidine group, and plain water group. A baseline plaque samples were collected and under supervision of examiner all the subjects rinsed with 10 ml of respective solutions for one minute. Plaque samples were collected at five minutes after rinsing. All the 30 subjects were exposed to all the three rinses with a wash out period of seven days between the interventions. All the samples were sent to microbial analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Wilcoxon matched pair test and Mann-Whitney U test showed that both chlorhexidine and green tea significantly reduced Streptococcus mutans colony counts compared to plain water.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of present study indicate that green tea mouth rinse proved to be equally effective compared to chlorhexidine which is considered as gold standard. This may also be a valuable public health intervention as it is economical and has multiple health benefits.
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Drs.S&N Siddhartha Institute of Dental Sciences , Chinaoutpally, Gannavaram, Andhra Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Rosy Sirisha
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Neturi
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistry, SIBAR Institute of Dental Sciences , Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Srinivas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: R
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistryy, SIBAR Institute of Dental Sciences , Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Vikram Simha
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: B
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistry, CKS Teja Institute of Dental Sciences , Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Sandhya Sree
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Y
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistry, KLR'S Lenora Institute of Dental Sciences , Rajmundry, Andhra Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Chandra Shekar
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: T
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Sree Sai Dental college and research Institute , Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh, India .
authors.forename: Siva Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: P
keywords: Chlorhexidine; Green tea; Herbal mouth rinse; Streptococcus mutans