Measurement of protein and collagen in teeth before and after whitening strips

Abstract

Americans spend billions of dollars each year on whitening products for the teeth. Whether it is performed in a dentist's office or with over‐the‐counter whitening strips, the active ingredient, hydrogen peroxide, is the same and has long been known to damage proteins. The goal was to measure the level of protein extracted from teeth untreated as well as those treated with one or three rounds of whitening strips. Teeth were purchased and treated according to manufacturer's instructions. In one round, teeth were dry when treated and washed with water after for 30 minutes. In another round, teeth were suspended in artificial saliva during treatment and for 30 minutes afterwards. Afterwards, the teeth were dialyzed against 10% EDTA pH 9.0 for 2 weeks. The fluid contained the soluble non collagen proteins and total protein was measured using the Lowry assay. The tooth remnants were dialyzed for two weeks against water and placed in liquid nitrogen, hammered in shards and then ground into a powder in a blender. The powder was suspended in an acetic acid, sodium chloride solution and contained collagen. The collagen was treated with pepsin for four hours to collect a pepsin soluble fraction (PSC). The amount of protein in the collagen and PSC fraction was tested using a modified Lowry assay procedure. Based on the Lowry assay, there was a significant decrease in protein content after treatment with whitening strips and the loss increased with more treatments. Based on the modified Lowry procedure, there was also a significant loss of collagen as measured by the modified Lowry procedure for both the collagen and PSC fraction. Similar losses were observed with or without the artificial saliva.Support or Funding InformationAuthors thank Stockton University for the Research and Professional Development grant to support this project.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.