The Effect of a Zinc-L-Carnosine Mouthwash in the Management of Oral Surgical Wounds: Preliminary Results of a Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: Zinc L-carnosine promotes the transition from the inflammatory to the proliferative phase of wound healing by reducing the expression of pro-inflammatory signals and enhancing the expression of anti-inflammatory signals. This prospective cohort study aims to test the effect of a zinc–L-carnosine mouthwash in promoting oral surgical wound healing. Methods: From October 2022 to February 2023, the authors enrolled healthy adult volunteers who needed the extraction of bilateral molars at the Unit of Dentistry of the University of Bari. The authors studied the baseline wound healing of each patient after the first extraction. Three months later, the patients underwent the second extraction and rinsed their mouths with zinc–L-carnosine mouthwash twice per day for the following 28 postoperative days. For a month after each extraction, the patients received weekly follow-up visits by an oral surgeon blinded about the study to record the modified healing index score of the wounds (range 0–6 points). For statistical analysis, we used the one-tailed t-test for paired samples with a significance level set at p < 0.05 to compare the baseline scores with those recorded during the exposure to the zinc–L-carnosine mouthwash. Results: The authors enrolled four women and six men (mean age = 44.60 ± 19.22 years). On the seventh and fourteenth postoperative days, the mean difference between the modified healing index scores obtained by using the zinc–L-carnosine mouthwash and the baseline was not significant. On the twenty-first postoperative day, the mean score obtained by using the mouthwash was 5.2 ± 1.3 points and was significantly higher than the 4.7 ± 1.8 points of the baseline (p = 0.026). On the twenty-eighth postoperative day, the mean difference was significant as well (5.9 ± 0.3 points and 5.4 ± 1.1 points, respectively). Conclusion: The preliminary results of this study showed that the zinc–L-carnosine mouthwash improved the quality of oral surgical wound healing.