Systematic review of studies comparing the anti-caries efficacy of children's toothpaste containing 600 ppm of fluoride or less with high fluoride toothpastes of 1,000 ppm or above

Abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by Dr Trevor Watts

Abstract

Lower fluoride concentrations gave less protection against caries.

Main

Ammari AB, Bloch-Zupan A et al. Caries Res 2003; 37: 85–92

Excessive consumption of fluoride may result in fluorosis. Most dentifrices contain about 1000 ppm F⁻, and there has been some interest in lower concentrations. A search over 35 years of literature identified 8 comparative trials of low and high fluoride toothpastes, 7 of which had a satisfactory Jadad score for quality.

All reported water levels of F⁻ were below 0.2 ppm. DFS caries increment varied from 3.2 over 24 months to 10.9 over 36 months for 1000 ppm dentifrices; for 250 ppm pastes respective figures were 3.7 and 12.7.

Only 2 individual trials reported significant differences between pastes, but when meta-analysed, 1000 ppm monofluorophosphate dentifrices gave a weighted mean DFS 0.6 less than 250 ppm (P = 0.002) and DFT 0.33 less (P = 0.004). NaF dentifrices gave similar results. There were insufficient data for meta-analysis of 500 ppm dentifrices. The authors consider the number of adequate trials small and recommend further studies.