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Choice of toothpaste for the elderly: an in vitro study

Abstract:

Hyposalivation and dental root exposure in the elderlyare problems that require special oral care. In this context, thecharacteristics of certain toothpastes are of particular importance.Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the cytotoxicity and dentinwear caused by seven different toothpastes. For dentin wear analysis,40 root dentin specimens were submitted to 20,000 brushing cycles withthe different toothpastes and distilled water (control group-CG), usinga brushing machine. Dentin surface loss (SL) was measured by contactprofilometer. The cytotoxicity of each toothpaste was tested usingcultured fibroblasts submitted to a cell-culture-conditioned medium.Fresh medium served as the control. Cell viability was assessed by MTTassay after 24 h of contact with the conditioned media. The data wereanalyzed statistically by ANOVA, followed by Tukey’s test (p < 0.05).The SL of the CG was minimal and significantly lower than that of theOral B Pro Health (OBPH) group (p < 0.05). All other groups presentedSL in between that of the CG and the Oral B Pro Health OBPH group,except for the Sensodyne (SEN) group, which presented SL similarto that of CG (p = 0.05). The SEN group presented a percentage ofviable cells similar to that of CG: between 60-89%. All the othertoothpastes showed high cytotoxicity, with cell viability less than 50%of the CG. Considering study limitations, we concluded that only oneof the seven tested toothpastes exhibited the most desirable toothpastecharacteristics for the worldwide growing elderly population (e.g. lowcytotoxicity and low-abrasive potential)