Effect of chemical activation of 10% carbamide peroxide gel in tooth bleaching

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of chemical agents to increase the bleaching effectiveness of 10% carbamide peroxide. Two hundred and ninety enamel-dentin discs were prepared from bovine incisors. The color measurement was performed by a spectrophotometer using the CIE L*a*b*system. The groups were divided according to the bleaching treatment: negative control group (NC): without bleaching; positive control group (PC): bleached with 10% carbamide peroxide gel without any chemical activator; Manganese gluconate (MG); Manganese chloride (MC); Ferrous gluconate (FG); Ferric chloride (FC); and Ferrous sulphate (FS). Three different concentrations (MG, MC, FG, FC: 0.01, 0.02 and 0.03% w/w; FS: 0.001, 0.002 and 0.003% w/w) for each agent were tested. The bleaching gel was applied on the specimens for 8 h, after which they were immersed in artificial saliva for 16 h, during 14 days. Color assessments were made after 7 and 14 days. The data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance and Tukey's test (5%). Generally, the test groups were unable to increase the bleaching effect (ΔE) significantly compared to the PC group. Only for ΔL, significant higher values compared to the PC group could be seen after 7 days in groups MG (0.02%), and FS (0.002 and 0.003%). The NC group showed significantly lower values than all tested groups. It was concluded that for home bleaching procedures, the addition of chemical activators did not produce a bleaching result significantly higher than the use of 10% carbamide peroxide without activation, and that the concentration of chemical activators used did not significantly influence the effectiveness of treatment.