A clinical trial of the effect of a mouth-rinse prepared with Lippia sidoides Cham essential oil in dogs with mild gingival disease.

We evaluated the effect of a mouth-rinse prepared using Lippia sidoides essential oil (EO) in dogs with marginal gingivitis. German Shepherd dogs were distributed in two groups: control (control mouth-rinse) and EO (EO mouth-rinse). Both mouth-rinses were applied on the dogs' teeth every 2 days for 2 weeks. At day 0 and day 15, the scores for plaque-bacteria (P), calculus (C), gingivitis (G) and the inflammatory infiltrate (INF) were evaluated blindly. The results were analyzed by the Wilcoxon signed-rank and Mann-Whitney tests (P</=0.05). P, C, G, and INF did not show any alteration in the control group, while in the EO group there were significant reductions in these scores.