Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the antifungal effect
of peppermint extract as mouth rinse during orthodontic treatment.
Thirty patients (11 males and 19 females) who wear orthodontic
appliances and instructed to use chlorhexidine as
mouth rinse (8 patients); Mentha piperita extract (10 patients)
or left to care of their teeth without any mouth rinse (12 patients);
mean number of Candida albicans colonies recovered
from anterior surface at three intervals (Time 0: Before wearing
the appliance; time 1: After 7 days and time 2: After 1
month) was 48.8, 144.3, 158.9 for the control group; 132.9,
125.4, 147.9 for the peppermint group and 72, 105.8 and
130.8 for the chlorhexidine group.
The mean number of Candida albicans colonies from
the posterior surface at the different intervals was 87.4, 136.8,
159.5; 121.3, 84, 34.6 and 78.5, 91.25, 91 for control, peppermint
and chlorhexidine groups respectively. The use of the
peppermint extract decreases the number of Candida albicans
significantly at the posterior surfaces