Authors
Kristin Adair, Camila Sabatini, Elizabeth Stellrecht, Frank A Scannapieco
Published in
Oral diseases. Oct 22, 2026. Epub Oct 22, 2026.
Abstract
The ability of rinsing with water following exposure to fermentable carbohydrate (FC) to raise dental biofilm pH has been surprisingly understudied. This scoping review's objective was to assess the evidence for water's effect on neutralization of dental biofilm pH following FC.
The PRISMA-ScR checklist was followed for reporting this scoping review. Four databases were searched for studies that evaluated pH response of dental biofilms to FC followed by water rinsing. Two reviewers selected papers and extracted data independently.
A total of 1296 papers were identified; 14 studies met inclusion criteria and were further evaluated. Ten studies reported volume of water rinses. Of these studies, five used ≥ 20 mL water, and four of these studies found water to raise biofilm pH significantly. The five studies that reported using < 20 mL water did not find water to raise biofilm pH significantly.
Based on a small heterogenous set of studies, it may be summarized that rinsing with ≥ 20 mL of water following FC appears to neutralize dental biofilm; its effectiveness should be further investigated as a cost-effective, accessible, dental-caries prevention strategy.
PMID:
42908343
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 23 Oct 2026.
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