A survey of preprocedural antiseptic mouth rinse use in army dental clinics

Objective: The objective of this project was to evaluate the use of preprocedural mouth rinses in Army dental clinics. Materials and Methods: Three hundred six-question surveys were distributed to 10 Army dental organizations throughout the United States and Germany during the period from March 2001 to March 2002. Two hundred fifty-four surveys were completed and returned. Simple mathematics were used to evaluate answers to the questionnaires. Results: The 254 respondents included military dentists (n = 190), civilian dentists used by the military (n = 27), registered dental hygienists (n = 20), and military-trained dental hygiene technicians (n = 17). Eighty-four and one-tenth percent of respondents (n = 216) use preprocedural rinses in their practices to prevent possible disease transmission (n = 85) or to decrease chances of postoperative infection (n = 167). Chlorhexidine gluconate (n = 170) and phenol-based essential oil preparations (n = 84) are the most commonly used products. The perceived greatest benefits of preprocedural rinsing are to decrease oral bacterial load (38%), to decrease incidence of postoperative infection (21%), and to decrease aerosolization of bacteria (8.66%). Conclusions: Army dental clinics make extensive use of antimicrobial preprocedural rinses. Chlorhexidine and Listerine (Warner-Lambert Consumer Healthcare, Morris Plains, NJ) are the most commonly used products. Currently available literature appears to support the use of these products in preventing or diminishing the chances of postoperative infection.