Conocimiento sobre el uso del Plantago-major como terapia alternativa en lesiones inflamatorias bucales

Abstract

Introduction: Plantago Major is an herb known as “llanten”; it has huge marketing potential, because of its anti-inflammatory, astringent and healing properties. For that reason, it was formerly used to heal any inflammation, mainly in the mouth. Hence, it was proposed the present research to know the dentist’s opinion about the aforementioned plant. Objective: To evaluate Libertador Municipality private practice dentist’s knowledge about Plantago Major as an alternative therapy in oral inflammatory lesions. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted. The sample consisted of 60 dentists randomly selected. Those dentists worked in private clinics at the Libertador municipality in Merida State. Subjects answered a 12-items structured survey based on the knowledge, use and frequency to which dentists recommend the plant, those being the nominal qualitative variables in the research. Result: it was observed that 58.3% of dentists used Plantago Major as treatment in oral inflammations like gingivitis (48.3%), ulcers (16.7%) and periodontitis (15%). Conclusion: The presentstudy allowed confirming that the majority of private practice dentists from Libertador Municipality in Merida State use the Plantago Major as complementary therapy in treatments indicated for oral inflammation, that fact represents a trend to holistic dentistry.