Background: heat cured acrylic resin is a common material for denture bases. This material has disadvantages, such as porosity that cause plaque formation which can cause Denture stomatitis, such as Streptococcus mutans. The common preventive action was cleaning the denture bases with chlorhexidine, but it has side effects. The alternative natural disinfectant that is currently being developed as a soaking agent for heat cured acrylic resin plates, but still has limited research data is citronella. Citronella has antibacterial properties such as essential oils, saponins and flavonoids. Objective: This study aims to explain the effect of immersion the heat cured acrylic resin on the number of Streptocooccus mutans colonies. Methods: Invitro experimental research using a post-test with control group design. Immersion of heat cured acrylic plates in 20% citronella leaf extract solution as the treatment group and immersion in distilled water as the negative control group. Results: The number of Streptococcus mutans colonies on immersion of acrylic plates in a solution of 20% citronella extract and distilled water respectively was 2.1×105 CFU/cm2 and 1.4×106 CFU/cm2. Conclusion: There is an effect of soaking heat-cured acrylic resin in 20% concentration of citronella leaf extract solution on Streptococcus mutans colonies.
Febriani et al. (Tue,) studied this question.