A new appliance to evaluate the clinical efficacy of dental calculus control agents

A new intra-oral appliance was developed to measure the inhibition of early calcium deposition by anti-calculus agents in dentifrice products. Four clinical studies were conducted to evaluate the application of this appliance for short-term (4 or 12 hrs) prevention of calcium deposition after panelists brushed with assigned dentifrices.

Residual Ca2+ on the appliance was determined by inductively coupled plasma analysis. In two 4-hour studies, the appliance was utilized to compare the calculus inhibiting properties of Colgate Tartar Control plus Whitening (CTCW) versus Crest Regular (CR), or CTCW versus Crest Tartar Control (CTC) dentifrice. In the third and fourth studies, where early calculus deposits were collected 12 hours (daytime and nighttime) after product use, CR was compared to Colgate Total Toothpaste (CT).

In the first study, there was a mean 48.2% inhibition (p < 0.0215) of early calculus formation by CTCW versus CR, which contains no known tartar control agents. In the second 4-hour study, CTCW provided 33.5% more inhibition (p < 0.0264) of early calculus formation than CTC. The results from both 4-hour studies are in agreement with in vitro and long-term clinical studies which utilized the same dentifrices. There was a significant (p < 0.04), 23.0% inhibition by CT compared to CR after 12 hours daytime post-brushing, and a 20.4% decrease in 12-hour nighttime post-brushing by CT compared to CR, which was significant at p < 0.05. The results are in agreement with both laboratory and clinical studies documenting the efficacy of CT over a 12-hour time period.

The intra-oral appliance, developed, tested and reported here, appears useful to assess and predict the long-term clinical efficacy of anti-calculus agents in dentifrices.