Dental herbalism
It is a well know that we can treat different health conditions using medicinal herbs. The properties of herbs such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antiviral etc., are alreday proved and can be utilized in the treatment of different pathologies concerning the oral cavity also. On the other hand, if we compare herbs to medicaments, the first ones are safer in use, due to the reduced number of side effects.
The aim. What is the effect of some herbs (cinnamon, stevia, propolis and orange peel) in the bacterial plaque and caries.
Materials and methods. This article is a literature review. Around 500 articles were shown during the search using the keywords. Only 9 articles were selected and used for the purpose of this article. The articles include various studies concerning the herbs of interest, their effects on the dental plaque and to the dental caries evolution. The articles are newly published and adress in vivo and in vitro researches using the herbs of interest.
Results. The approval of the inhibiting potentials towards the bacterial activity and dental plaque formation are some of the results. The fact that different authors had similar results is interesting.
Conclusions. It is undisputable that herbs are easily accepted and have a reduced number of side effects. The conducted studies have already led the way towards a future with complete herbal based oral products. The lack of standardisation of this discipline and the absence of a research institute in Albania causes limitations in this research work.