Do commercial whitening dentifrices increase enamel erosive tooth wear?

This in vitro study evaluated the effect of commercial whitening dentifrices on erosive tooth wear (ETW) of bovine enamel samples, in comparison with commercial regular dentifrices.

Sixty bovine crowns were embedded in acrylic resin, polished and then had their baseline profile determined. They were randomly assigned to 5 groups (n=12/group), according to the type of commercial dentifrice to be tested: GI - Crest Anti-cavity Regular; GII - Crest 3D White; GIII - Colgate Total 12 Clean Mint; GIV - Colgate Optic White; GV - Placebo (negative control, fluoride-free dentifrice). The samples were submitted to daily erosive and abrasive challenges for 3 days. The erosive challenges were performed 3 times a day by immersing the specimens in 0.1% citric acid solution (pH 2.5) for 90 s. Each day after the first and last erosive challenges, the specimens were subjected to the abrasive challenge for 15 s, using a toothbrushing machine (Biopdi, São Carlos, SP, Brazil), soft toothbrushes and slurry (1:3 g/ml) of the tested toothpastes (1.5 N). The specimens were kept in artificial saliva between the challenges. The final profile was obtained and the ETW (µm) was calculated. Data were analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn's tests (p<0.05).

All dentifrices tested significantly reduced the enamel wear in comparison with the Placebo, except GIII. The median (95% CI) ETW was 1.35 (1.25-1.46)bc for GI, 1.17 (1.01-1.34)cd for GII, 1.36 (1.28-1.45)ab for GIII, 1.08 (1.04-1.14)d for GIV and 2.28 (2.18-2.39)a for GV.

When dentifrices from the same manufacturer were compared, the whitening dentifrices led to similar or less wear than the regular ones.