Effect of pH of amine fluoride containing toothpastes on enamel remineralization in vitro

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Effect of pH of amine fluoride containing toothpastes on enamel remineralization in vitro
Published online 2007 October 17
Received February 20, 2007; Accepted October 17, 2007.
BMC Oral Health
PubMed Central

Copyright © 2007 Arnold et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

1Faculty of Dental Medicine, University of Witten/Herdecke, Witten, Germany
2Faculty of Dentistry, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Corresponding author.
#Contributed equally.
Wolfgang H Arnold: wolfa@uni-wh.de; Anabel Haase: a.haase@uni-wh.de; Julia Hacklaender: j.haclaender@uni-wh.de; Zeno Gintner: jbanoczy@axelero.hu; Jolan B?n€czy: jbanoczy@axelero.hu; Peter Gaengler: peter.gaengler@uni-wh.de

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract
Background
One of the important factors of the demineralization and remineralization equilibrium of enamel is the pH of the surrounding solutions. Effort has been laid in the formulation of different fluoride compounds and the fluoride content in toothpastes but much less is known about the influence of the pH of the toothpastes on their effectiveness. It was therefore the aim of this study to investigate the influence of different pH levels on enamel remineralization in an in vitro experiment using polarization light microscopy and EDX quantitative element analysis.

Methods
A 5 ? 5 mm window on the enamel surface of 40 caries free extracted human premolars was demineralized in a hydroxyethylcellulose solution at pH 4.8. The teeth were divided into 8 groups and the lower half of the window was covered with varnish serving as control. Each group was then immersed in toothpaste slurry containing amine fluoride (1400 ppm) at pH 4.1, 4.5, 5.1 and 6.9 or control toothpaste slurry without fluoride at pH 4.3, 4.7, 5.3 and 7.0. Serial sections were cut through the lesions and investigated with polarization light microscopy and quantitative EDX element analysis.

Results
The PLM results showed a decreased porous volume of the body of the lesion after incubation with fluoridated toothpaste at pH 4.53 and 5.16. No differences between the experimental window and the control window were found in the other groups. The quantitative element analysis showed no differences in the element content of any of the groups.

Conclusion
From the results it can be concluded that slightly acidified fluoridated dentifrices may have a certain positive effect on enamel remineralization.

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