Aim: To compare the effects of coconut oil pulling versus Magic mouthwash on chemo-radiotherapy induced oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients.
Design: This was a double-blind, randomized controlled trial with a total of n=80 patients of chemo-radiotherapy induced oral mucositis in head and neck cancer randomized into two arms A and B. A= Oil pulling using pure coconut oil and B= commercially prepared Magic Mouthwash. Each arm consisted of n=40 patients evaluated for a total duration of nine weeks using the WHO scale of oral mucositis and four different pain scores including Verbal pain intensity scale, Numeric pain intensity scale, Visual analog scale and FACES scale. Patients were evaluated at baseline 0, week 3, 6 and 9.Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.
Results: Total of n=72 participants completed the study between December 2017 to August 2018; randomly assigned to Group A (n=36) and group B (n=36).Of these n=48 were male and n=24 female. In both groups there was a reduction in WHO oral mucositis scores over the time of nine weeks; however, the differences were not statistically significant (p value=0.633). The two treatments did not differ on the main outcome measure i.e. WHO mucositis scale from baseline, or on any other measure of pain, while followed for the nine weeks of trial. Adverse effects were similar between the two arms and the most common reported adverse events were radiation induced rash, mouth fatigue and dry mouth.
Conclusion: Oil pulling and magic mouthwash were equally effective in reducing both the severity of oral mucositis and relieving the pain of chemo radiation induced oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients. Oil pulling with coconut oil can be used as an alternative therapy to magic mouthwash for treating chemo-radiation induced oral mucositis.
Key words: oral mucositis, oil pulling, magic mouthwash, coconut oil
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