Objectives: The aim of the present study was to review the effectiveness, side effects, and patient acceptance of different concentrations and formula-tion of chlorhexidine-based mouth-washes used after periodontal and implant surgery. Materials and Methods: The PRISMA guideline was adopted in the search strategy using electronic databases PubMed and MEDLINE to identify randomized and case–control prospective studies on hu-mans written in English language and published up to September 2017. Results: A total of 10 articles were selected for a total of 344 patients. Because of the significant heterogeneity of the outcome meas-ures, meta-analysis was not per-formed, and the data were summarized in a table. A positiverelationship between the use of chlo-rhexidine and reduction of plaque was found, demonstrating the effectiveness of the substance in terms of antisepsis and decrease of inflammation after periodontal and implant surgery. Conclusion: Chlorhexidine is recognized as the primary agent for plaque control and the gold standard in preventing infection, although the presence of largely known side ef-fects would affect patient compli-ance. Future research should be directed at finding chlorhexidine formulation with negligible adverse effects, without compromising or even increasing its effectiveness as the antiseptics and antiplaque agent.