Rheological characteristics of tooth bleaching materials

Tooth bleaching materials need to flow easily on insertion but should have high viscosity at low stresses to stay in place on the teeth. Some degree of elasticity may also aid retention on the teeth thereby maximizing efficacy. The present work was undertaken to study the comparative rheology of three tooth bleaching systems: two gels (Opalescence, Ultradent; Perfecta Trio, American Dental Hygienics) and a paste (Colgate Platinum, Colgate). A dynamic stress rheometer (Rheometrics Scientific) with cone and plate geometry was used, with the materials maintained at 37.0+/-0.1 degrees C with a vapour hood to minimize volatilization. Stress creep and recovery experiments were carried out. Steady shear viscosity for all three systems was high (>10(6) Pa s(-1)) for stresses <20 Pa. Between 100 and 200 Pa stress, all three materials showed a large drop in viscosity and flowed readily. The recovery portion of the data showed a marked difference where the elasticity of the gels was nearly two orders of magnitude higher than that of the paste. It was concluded that all materials would flow readily on insertion into the mouth and all have desirable high viscosity at low stress, but the paste material had the lowest elasticity. The effect of elasticity on performance needs to be determined clinically.