The study participants refrained from all oral hygiene procedures for at least 12 hours as well as from eating, drinking and smoking for 4 hours prior to the baseline examinations. Eligible patients were randomly assigned to receive a commercially available dentifrice containing 0.6% Ilicis Rotundae Cortex extract (experimental group) or a dentifrice without any active ingredient (control group). Random assignment to groups was performed externally by another dentist, using a computer-generated randomization sequence; all other study personnel were neither involved in the randomization process nor aware of treatment assignments in any outcome evaluation.