The OMEGA study looked at whether men who rinse and gargle a mouthwash daily reduce the risk of getting pharyngeal gonorrhoea.
A total of 530 gay and bisexual men were recruited in Melbourne and Sydney in 2016-2018. Men were randomly assigned to receive the Biotène® group (control) and to the Listerine® group (intervention). All men were instructed to rinse and gargle with 20 mL of mouthwash for 60 s at least once daily for 12 weeks.
The OMEGA study aimed to compare the efficacy of Listerine® and Biotène® mouthwashes for preventing gonorrhoea among gay/bisexual men.
Results showed that Listerine® did not reduce the incidence of oropharyngeal gonorrhoea compared with Biotène® over a 12-week period.
Previous research suggests that mouthwash might reduce the infectivity of oropharyngeal gonorrhoea and therefore we also conducted the OMEGA2 study to examine whether mouthwash can be used as an alternative treatment for oropharyngeal gonorrhoea
Publications
Antiseptic mouthwash for gonorrhoea prevention (OMEGA): a randomised, double-blind, parallel-group, multicentre trial
Chow EPF, Williamson DA, Hocking JS, Law MG, Maddaford K, Bradshaw CS, McNulty A, Templeton DJ, Moore R, Murray GL, Danielewski JA, Wigan R, Chen MY, Guy RJ, Zhang L, Donovan B, Grulich AE, Kaldor JM , Whiley DM, Cornelisse VJ, Howden BP, Lewis DA, Read TRH, Fairley CK
(2021), The Lancet Infectious Diseases,
A multicentre double-blind randomised controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of daily use of antibacterial mouthwash against oropharyngeal gonorrhoea among men who have sex with men: the OMEGA (Oral Mouthwash use to Eradicate GonorrhoeA) study protocol
Chow EPF, Walker S, Hocking JS, Bradshaw CS, Chen MY, Tabrizi SN, Howden BP, Law MG, Maddaford K, Read TRH, Lewis DA, Whiley DM, Zhang L, Grulich AE, Kaldor JM, Cornelisse VJ, Phillips S, Donovan B, McNulty AM, Templeton DJ, Roth N, Moore R & Fairley CK.
(2017), BMC Infectious Diseases,
The Impact of Mouthwash on the Oropharyngeal Microbiota of Men Who Have Sex with Men: a Sub-study of the OMEGA Trial
Plummer EL, Maddaford K, Murray GL, Fairley CK, Pasricha S, Mu A, Bradshaw CS, Williamson DA, Chow EPF.
(2022), Microbiology Spectrum,