Gargling with Black Tea as an Effort to Increase Saliva pH in Elementary School Students

Background: Tea is an herbal product which has an antibacterial effect and ability to increase saliva pH. black tea contains polyphenols which can help prevent dental caries. The teeth of primary school-aged children are susceptible to caries, and prevention is needed as early as possible. Objective: To discover the effectiveness of gargling with black tea to the salivary pH increase on elementary school students. Method: This is a quasi-experimental research with the pretest-posttest design with control group. The population in this research was the 2nd grade students of State Elementary School are 58 students. Total Sampling was used for the sample collecting. The sample was divided to two groups, namely the treatment group of black tea gargling, and the other is the control group of distilled water gargling. The data analysis used Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney. Results: Based on the results, the average before gargling with black tea was 6.634, and increased to 7.297 after gargling with black tea. The average before gargling with distilled water was 6.648, and 6.669 after gargling with distilled water. The Wilcoxon Test result showed the value of p= 0.000< 0.05 which means there was a significant difference between before and after gargling with black tea. The Mann-Whitney Test result showed the value of p= 0.000 < 0.05 so there was an effectiveness difference between gargling with black tea and distilled water to the salivary pH increase. Conclusion: Gargling with black tea is effective in increasing the salivary pH on elementary school students. Keywords: Gargle, black tea, saliva p