Antifungal activity of three mouth rinses--in vitro study.

Mouthrinses are nowadays routinely included in the home care oral hygiene maintenance besides dentifrice/tooth paste. Mouthrinses prevent bacterial attachment and prevent or slow down bacterial proliferation. Fungal organisms have now gained more importance due to increased incidence of AIDS/HIV. This has necessitated for mouthrinses to possess antifungal activity also. The mouthrinses used were Povidone iodine ( Wokadine), Thymol with Eucalyptol and Benzoic acid (Listerine) and fluoride with Triclosan (Colgate Plax), which were tested against oral isolates of different species of Candida. The agar diffusion test was used to evaluate the inhibitory activity of the mouthrinses and all of them exhibited antifungal activity especially against Candida albicans.