Experimental gingivitis studies: effects of triclosan and triclosan-containing dentifrices on dental plaque and gingivitis in three-week randomized controlled clinical trials.

A recently reported six-month gingivitis study demonstrated that in subjects with gingivitis, a triclosan/pyrophosphate dentifrice provided supragingival plaque control. The level of plaque reduction was comparable with that reported for other triclosan-containing dentifrices; however, no reductions in gingivitis were observed for triclosan/pyrophosphate relative to the negative control. One possible explanation of this result is that the Hawthorne effect in the study was too great to allow the detection of a treatment benefit for the triclosan product.