[Stomach tolerance of various fluoride preparations. An endoscopy controlled single-blind study of healthy probands]

In 12 healthy volunteers the gastro-duodenal damaging effects of Ossiplex retard tid, Mono-Tridin tid and Ossin bid were investigated in a randomised, single blind cross-over study. Prior to the start of the three therapeutic phases subjects underwent endoscopic examination to exclude gastro-duodenal mucosa lesions. On day 14 of therapy 2 hours after the application of the last fluoride dose subjects underwent endoscopy again. The 14 days administration of Ossiplex retard, Mono-Tridin und Ossin led to gastro-duodenal mucosa lesion scores of 0.42 +/- 0.26; 1.50 +/- 0.54 and 2.08 +/- 0.71 (mean +/- SEM) respectively. These differences were statistically significant when comparing Ossiplex retard vs Ossin (p less than 0.05), but not Ossiplex retard vs Mono-Tridin. Regarding the number and the severity of lesions the differences between the gastro-duodenal mucosa damaging potency of the three fluoride preparations were also evident. With Ossiplex retard only in three subjects petechiae (n = 1) and antral erythemas (n = 2) were observed. Under Mono-Tridin and Ossin, however, a higher grade of lesions i.e. erosions and an ulcer were seen endoscopically. This study shows that the slow release fluoride preparation Ossiplex retard demonstrates a lower gastro-duodenal mucosa damaging potency when compared to the other fluorides Ossin and Mono-Tridin. There was no relationship between serum fluoride concentrations and the grade of gastro-duodenal mucosa lesions.