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Background and aim Plaque is a common etiological factor for common oral conditions like gingivitis, periodontitis, dental caries and halitosis. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a novel herbal dentifrice in control of plaque, gingivitis, and halitosis in comparison to control dentifrice. Experimental procedure We conducted a randomized controlled, single center, double-blinded parallel arm clinical trial. Participants were randomly distributed with commercially available herbal dentifrice or control dentifrice. Assessments of plaque, gingivitis, halitosis, unstimulated saliva pH were done at baseline and at one month by a trained and calibrated periodontist. All the participants were given new toothbrushes one week before the start of the study. They were asked to brush with the designated dentifrices for 2–4 min, twice daily for one month. Results and conclusion A total of 79 participants were recruited for this study, out of which 75 participants completed the follow-up. Inter-group comparisons of all the variables at baseline showed no significant differences in the mean plaque index, gingival index, halitosis and pH between test and control groups respectively. Intra-group comparisons showed a significant decrease in mean plaque, gingival and halitosis at follow-up than at baseline in both test and control groups. No significant differences between test and control groups were seen in the mean plaque index (P = 0.792), gingival index (P = 0.292), halitosis (P = 0.266), pH (P = 0.742) at follow-up after adjusting the respective baseline scores. The novel herbal dentifrice could be a suitable alternative for the control of plaque, gingivitis, and halitosis., Graphical abstract Image 1, Highlights • Significant decrease in clinical indices at follow-up than baseline in both groups. • Significant increase in salivary pH at follow-up than baseline in both groups. • No significant differences were seen clinical indices between test and control.

Aim To evaluate the cumulative estimates of reliability and conduct reliability generalization meta-analysis of Cronbach's alpha for the Child Oral Impacts on Daily Performances (C-OIDP) questionnaire. Methodology Systematic search of four databases from inception to November 30th, 2019 was performed. Studies that reported Cronbach alpha for the C–OIDP were included. Cronbach's alpha for each publication was used for the meta-analysis. I2 and Q statistics were calculated to assess heterogeneity. Meta-analysis was performed using a random-effects model to derive a pooled estimate of Cronbach's alpha. Results Out of 944 publications, data extraction was done from 33 publications after exclusion. The age range among the included publication was from 6 to 19 years. Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.53 to 0.9. Majority of the publications (n = 21) reported alpha above the benchmark (0.7 and above). Only two publications used condition-specific C-OIDP questionnaires. Twelve publications used self-administered child-OIDP questionnaires. Most of the studies were at a low risk of bias (n = 29). The cumulative alpha was higher in publications with a low ROB (α = 0.74) than a moderate ROB (α = 0.65) The cumulative alpha was 0.73 (SE = 0.02) with a high heterogeneity among the included publications (I2 = 99.28% and Q = 2048.68; P Conclusion Overall, the RG estimate of Cronbach's alpha for C-OIDP was above the widely accepted benchmark.