Effectiveness of Green Tea (Camellia sinensis) Mouth Rinse on Wound Healing after Gingivectomy

Background: Green tea or Camellia sinensis is regarded as a healthy drink as it contains polyphenols, especially catechins, which possess antioxidative, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and angiogenic effects for healthy periodontium. Aim and objective: To examine the effectiveness of green tea (C. sinensis) mouth rinse on wound healing after gingivectomy. Materials and methods: Double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted among 36 participants with non-inflammatory gingival enlargement in the age group of 30-55 years who were randomly allocated with block randomization (18 participants in each group) for the study group (5% green tea mouth rinse) and the control group (0.12% of chlorhexidine mouth rinse). Wound healing was examined by plaque index, gingival index (GI), and bleeding on probing (BOP) before surgery and after the second and the fourth week of gingivectomy. Results: Significant difference in plaque score (p > 0.05) between two groups at the second and the fourth week after gingivectomy was not detected, whereas GI mean score showed a decline in both groups at the fourth week, indicating statistical difference between groups at the fourth week (p < 0.05) in which GI score of the control group is more decreased than the study group. Similarly, the mean BOP scores in both groups showed no statistical significance (p > 0.05) between the study and the control groups at the second and the fourth week.