Root caries lesions inhibition and repair using commercial high-fluoride toothpastes with or without tri-calcium phosphate and conventional toothpastes containing or not 1.5% arginine CaCO3: an in situ investigation.

Abstract

This double-blind, crossover, and in situ study evaluated the effect of commercial high-F toothpastes with or without functionalized β-tri-calcium phosphate (fTCP) and conventional-F toothpaste containing or not 1.5% arginine-CaCO3 in preventing and repairing root caries-like lesions. Twelve volunteers wore palatal appliances containing sound (S) and pre-demineralized (PD) bovine root dentin blocks in 4 phases of 14days/each. They used F toothpastes, 3×/day: (i) 1,450μgF/g (conventional-F); (ii) 1,450μgF/g + 1.5% arginine-CaCO3 (conventional-F + arginine/CaCO3); (iii) 5,000μgF/g (high-F); and (iv) 5,000μgF/g (high-F + fTCP). Sucrose solution (20%) was dropped 8×/day on the S blocks. The demineralization in the S blocks and the remineralization in the PD ones were estimated by % of surface hardness difference (%SH-S) and % of SH recovery (%SHR-PD), respectively. Caries lesion area (ΔS) was determined in the blocks. Statistical analyses were performed by one-way ANOVA/Kruskal-Wallis and multiple comparisons tests (p < 0.05). Both high-F toothpastes presented similar effect to prevent early caries lesions and it was higher than conventional-F + arginine/CaCO3. All treatments resulted in significantly lower ΔS values compared with conventional-F toothpaste (p < 0.0001). High-F + fTCP showed non-significantly higher preventive and reversible effect compared to high-F. The effect of conventional-F + arginine/CaCO3 was similar to high-F and lower than high-F + fTCP in preventing and reverting in-deep caries lesions. Overall, high-F toothpastes seem to be more effective and interesting feasible strategy for both prevention and remineralization actions in root dentin. With the trend of increasing dentin root caries, this study brings new evidences about the preventive and repair effect of high-F toothpastes with or without fTCP in root caries and support the use of arginine in toothpastes.