AN OVERVIEW ON HERBAL TOOTH POWDER

Syed Zubair Atif* and S. M. Shahidulla

ABSTRACT

Powders are pharmaceutical solid dosage form encountered in almost every aspect of pharmacy both in industry and in practice. A pharmaceutical powder is a mixture of finely divided drugs and chemicals in dry form, which are meant for internal and external use. The present work is aimed to explain the relevancy of toothpowder in the
current scenario. The overall study concludes about the characteristics, types, properties, preparation and evaluation
of toothpowder. Herbal tooth powders consisting of various ingredients that are available in the market in a wide
range. Hence modern methods focusing on these aspect s are useful for the standardization of herbs and their
formulations. Consumers believed by using herbal based toothpowders are safe, effective, and less toxic. This
study is thus aimed to provide an alternative to the consumer and formulate herbal tooth p owder using Clove,
Neem, Peppermint, Cinnamon, Myrobalan, Amla. The oral cavity infections are the most common types of
infections. Dental caries is an infectious disease, causes damage and infection of enamel and dentine. If it is not
treated, the infecti on continues and will lead to tooth loss. The mouth contains normal flora of opportunistic
bacteria that are normally non pathogenic. The imbalance of this situation causes infection and tooth decay.
Streptococcus mutants are considered as the main species involved in the development of dental caries. S. mutants,
acid producing bacteria, causes fermentation of carbohydrates which results in tooth decay. Therefore, in the
present work, the following aspects of Herbal tooth powders were planned for the formul ation, standardization of
herbal tooth powder, and anti bacterial screening of the extracts of herbal tooth powder.

Keywords: Tooth Powders, Dental Caries, Fermentation, Bacteria, Flora, Herbal Tooth Powder.