The effect of a toothpaste containing oleanolic acid in reducing plaque and gingivitis: a proof-of-concept randomized trial.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the safety and efficacy of an oleanolic acid (OA)-containing toothpaste in reducing gingival inflammation and plaque in patients with gingivitis. METHODS: This proof-of-concept parallel, double-blind, randomized controlled clinical trial included 99 patients. Following a 1-week washout, patients were randomized into three groups: OA group (fluoride toothpaste containing 0.1% OA and placebo mouthwash); negative control (fluoride toothpaste and placebo mouthwash); and CHX group (fluoride toothpaste and 0.12% chlorhexidine mouthwash). Patients were clinically assessed at inclusion, pre-washout visit, baseline and after 4 days, 1 week and 2 weeks of twice-daily use of the products. Patients received a diary for documentation of bleeding on brushing and provided unstimulated saliva samples. RESULTS: After two weeks, all groups showed significant reductions in all clinical parameters. The CHX group exhibited significantly greater reductions in gingival index and interproximal gingival index scores at week 2, as compared to patients in the negative control (p = 0.04). In contrast, reductions in gingival index scores did not differ between CHX and OA groups and between OA and negative control groups at week 2. The CHX group had significantly greater reductions in plaque index scores at day-4, 1-week and 2-week evaluations, as compared to the negative control and OA groups. The frequency of adverse events was similar among the groups. None of the groups reduced salivary transferrin levels. Finally, the OA group had the lowest percentage of self-reported bleeding events. CONCLUSION: OA toothpaste failed to provide antiplaque and antigingivitis effects superior to those of a fluoride toothpaste after 2 weeks of use.

Avaliação da qualidade da informação em websites de clínicas e consultórios odontológicos / Assessment of quality information on clinics and dental offices websites

A internet passa a ter uma grande importância na comunicação em odontologia e a qualidade da informação é um dos aspectos fundamentais para a sua correta utilização. O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar a qualidade da informação na Internet em websites de clínicas e consultórios odontológicos. O trabalho foi dividido em duas etapas. A primeira consistiu em realizar um estudo hermenêutico da legislação e documentos pertinentes. A segunda etapa teve por objetivo verificar a qualidade da informação disponível nos websites selecionados. Para realizar a análise hermenêutica foram elaboradas 39 (trinta e nove) questões com dúvidas sobre a divulgação de assuntos odontológicos. O questionário foi enviado ao Conselho Regional de Odontologia do Estado de São Paulo. Foi revisada a legislação pertinente sobre o assunto. Para avaliar a qualidade da informação foi realizado um estudo transversal. A População do estudo foi composta por 100 websites de clínicas e consultórios odontológicos da região da Grande São Paulo. Tomou-se por base os critérios estabelecidos pela Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) em conjunto com o Health Information Technology Institute (HITI) e o Código de Ética Odontológica (2006), resultando em 25 (vinte e cinco) questões que avaliaram a qualidade da informação nos websites de clínicas e consultórios odontológicos.

A qualidade da informação nos websites se mostrou regular, com 53,68% do total de pontos possíveis, apresentando baixa qualidade principalmente nos indicadores de atualização (ausência da data de atualização), hierarquia de evidência (ausência de referências bibliográficas), avisos institucionais (ausência de alertas sobre limitação da informação), perfil do site (ausência dos termos de sigilo e privacidade das informações), ausência de mecanismo de busca interno, ausência de fóruns de discussão e ausência do número de inscrição no Conselho dos profissionais mencionados, que contribuíram para a redução de credibilidade dos websites. Dessa forma, a avaliação indica que os websites de clínicas e consultórios precisam ser melhorados e que os órgãos competentes devem dar mais atenção para a qualidade da informação apresentados na Internet. Sugere-se para futuras pesquisas a avaliação da qualidade da informação a partir da importância dada por pacientes, cirurgiões-dentistas e desenvolvedores de websites com os critérios apresentados no trabalho. O objetivo é gerar uma contínua melhoria desse importante sistema de informação, contribuindo para o desenvolvimento do relacionamento entre pacientes e cirurgiões-dentistas.

Nowadays, the Internet has a great importance in communication in dentistry and quality of information is a fundamental for its correct use. The objective of this study was to evaluate the information quality on the Internet, in websites of clinics and dental offices. The work was divided into two stages. The first one was to perform a hermeneutic study of legislation and relevant documents. The second step was to verify the information quality available in selected websites. At the hermeneutic analysis, 39 (thirty nine) issues with questions were made based on the disclosure of dental subjects. The questionnaire was sent to the São Paulo Regional Council of Dentistry. It was reviewed the relevant legislation about the subject. To evaluate the information quality, a cross-sectional study was made. The study population consisted of 100 clinic websites and dental offices in the metropolis of São Paulo. It was based on the criteria established by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in with the Health Information Technology Institute (HITI) and the Code of Ethics in Dentistry (2006), resulting in 25 (twenty five) questions that evaluated quality of information on the websites of clinics and dental offices.

The quality of information on websites showed regular, with 53,68% of the total possible points, with low quality indicators, especially in the update (no date of update), hierarchy of evidence (references absence), institutional warnings (alerts absence about limitation of information), the site profile (absence of the information confidentiality and privacy terms), no internal search engine, no discussion forums and absence of the registration number of the professionals mentioned in the Council, which contributed to the reduction of websites credibility. So, the evaluation indicates that the clinics websites and dental offices need to be improved and that the competent institutions should give more attention to the information quality presented on the Internet. It is suggested for future researches to evaluate the information quality from the importance given by patients, dentists and website developers with criteria presented into this study. Its objective is to improve continuously this important system of information, contributing with the development of the relationship between patients and dentists.