[Prophylaxis pastes--the new abrasive Perlit compared to conventional polishing substances]

Perlit is a new dental abrasive, based on volcanic silica. It has a flat, irregular disc-shaped structure which fractures readily in use. Individual discs tend to become oriented parallel to the tooth surface during use while the rough edges also become rounded. A Perlit-based prophylactic paste thus produces polished surfaces although it also has excellent cleaning properties on both enamel and dentin when used with either rubber polishing cups or bristle brushes. The Perlit-based prophy paste, Cleanic, yielded the best results when compared to other prophy pastes during laboratory test scored with the Prophylaxis Paste Index (PPI: Cleaning efficacy: [Abrasivity x Surface roughness]). Consequently, Perlit-based prophy pastes can be used initially as cleaning pastes and the same portion will subsequently polish the dental surfaces as well. Thus Perlit nullifies the rule that an efficient cleaning paste will be abrasive and must produce a roughened dental surface.