Title

Antimicrobial efficacy of disinfecting solutions against S. mutans on toothbrushes for school children in Uttar Pradesh, India

Authors

Shivani Singh¹,*, Abhijeet Alok², Kamil Shahnawaz³, Surender Kumar⁴, Shantala Ramdas Naik⁵ & Kumar Piyush⁶

Affiliation

¹Department of Public Health Dentistry, Private Practitioner, Patna, Bihar, India; ²Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Sarjug Dental College and Hospital, Darbhanga, Bihar, India; ³Department of Dentistry, Darbhanga Medical College Hospital, Darbhanga, Bihar, India; ⁴Department of Prosthodontics, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India; ⁵Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India; ⁶Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, RKDF Dental College and Research Center, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Shivani Singh - E-mail: drshivani37@gmail.com; Phone: +91 8279672498

Abhijeet Alok - E-mail: drabhijeetalok786@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9661010928

Kamil Shahnawaz - E-mail: drkamil.health@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9905056677

Surender Kumar - E-mail: drsurender2304@gmail.com; Phone: +91 8285081688

Shantala Ramdas Naik - E-mail: shantala_naik@rediffmail.com; Phone: +91 9993506361

Kumar Piyush - E-mail: piyush_kumar83@yahoo.com; Phone: +91 9473474045

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received June 1, 2026; Revised June 30, 2026; Accepted June 30, 2026, Published June 30, 2026

Abstract

Toothbrush bristles harbor pathogenic microorganisms like Streptococcus mutans, posing a continuous risk for reinfection and dental caries in children. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the ability of 5% neem, 5% green tea, 5% turmeric, 0.2% chlorhexidine (CHX) and tap water to disinfect Streptococcus mutans-contaminated toothbrushes after 12 hours of soaking. A randomized double-blind crossover study of 40 students (12–15 years) was conducted. All disinfectants significantly reduced bacterial counts compared to baseline, with the greatest reduction observed with 0.2% chlorhexidine, followed by 5% green tea. Thus, data shows that all disinfectants were effective, 0.2% chlorhexidine was the most effective and 5% green tea was a strong herbal alternative.

Keywords

Chlorhexidine gluconate (CHX), neem, streptococcus mutans, toothbrushes, turmeric

Citation

Singh et al. Bioinformation 22(6): 3619-3623 (2026)

Edited by

Vini Mehta  

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.