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Lussi A, Megert B et al. Caries Res 2008; 42: 62–67

Dental erosion may be increasing. It would therefore be of merit to develop toothpastes with protection against erosion.

This in vitro study measured surface microhardness on human enamel specimens 1) after incubation in a toothpaste slurry following by acid softening and artificial saliva exposure and 2) subjecting other specimens to acid softening followed by incubation in a toothpaste slurry and then artificial saliva. For the control, toothpaste was excluded. Amongst the toothpastes tested were Pronamel, Signal Active and Zendium.

The authors found that none of the toothpastes they studied, nor immersion of the specimens for up to 4 hours in artificial saliva, led to a complete recovery of microhardness. However, regression analysis demonstrated that the application of toothpaste before the erosive challenge produced more favourable results compared with post-exposure of toothpaste.