Uso de plantas medicinais no combate ao biofilme dental: uma revisão de literatura.

Abstract

The use of medicinal plants as therapy began at the origin of medicine and has grown over the years. The products of vegetal origin formed bases in the combat to diverse diseases, either due to the knowledge of the plants passed from generation to generation or by the use of some vegetal species like source of active particles. Due to the worldwide growth of phytotherapy as a method of prevention and control of pathologies, it was stimulated the evaluation of activities in the control of dental biofilm from plant extracts, as well as other oral diseases. Taking into account the context presented, this study aimed to present a literature review of the narrative type of medicinal plants in the fight against dental biofilm. A selection of scientific articles was obtained from the following databases: Virtual Health Library (VHL), Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo), National Center for Biotechnology Information (Pubmed), Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Sciences (LILACS) and Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (Medline). The inclusion criteria were papers published in Portuguese, English and Spanish from 2009 to 2019, in the format of article, thesis and dissertation. Articles published outside the chronology and language used as an inclusive criterion were excluded from this study. It was concluded that the use of medicinal plants has presented quite significant results in the fight against dental biofilm, either because of its antimicrobial properties or because of its non-adherent potential against the bacteria that form the dental biofilm. Further studies and clinical trials are suggested for conventional methods in combating dental biofilm and, consequently, dental caries.