Clinical effects of a new mouthrinse containing chlorhexidine, cetylpyridinium chloride and zinc-lactate on oral halitosis. A dual-center, double-blind placebo-controlled study.

Plain-language guide to PMID 12694427 (2003): double-blind randomized controlled trial of Zinc and Cetylpyridinium.

Key Facts

PMID: 12694427
Journal: Journal of clinical periodontology
Year: 2003
Study type: Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Winkel EG et al. (5 authors)
DOI: 10.1034/j.1600-051x.2003.00342.x

What This Study Did, in Plain Language

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Zinc and Cetylpyridinium in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

Forty volunteers, recruited in two centers, participated in this study.

Patients were selected on the basis of (1) halitosis of oral origin, (2) full-mouth organoleptic score>1, using an arbitrary 0-5 scale, (3) level of volatile sulfur compounds (VSC)>170 parts per billion (ppb) and (4) Winkel tongue coating index (WTCI)>4 (0-12).

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and parallel-group.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Zinc, giving a reference point.

The Zinc group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

At days 0 and 14 clinical variables were assessed in order of performance: (1) organoleptic assessments, (2) levels of VSC, and (3) WTCI.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Anti-Infective Agents, Local, Cetylpyridinium, Chlorhexidine, Halitosis, Lactic Acid, Mouthwashes and Smell.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Zinc and Cetylpyridinium.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2003 (Journal of clinical periodontology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the related Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc library page, all human trials.

Related Library Page

Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc: Magnesium is described as required for AMPK to function.

Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in the library

Source: PubMed record. This explanation is written by PeptideWhiz from the public record. For research and education only. Not medical advice; no dosing information is given.