This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of an 8% arginine and calcium carbonate in-office desensitizing prophylaxis paste with that of a home-use toothpaste having the same active ingredients in reducing dentine hypersensitivity. The study was a randomized controlled clinical trial involving 55 subjects who had at least one tooth with sound exposed dentine on the cervical region of the buccal surface displaying hypersensitivity. The subjects were recruited from students and staff, other than those from the Faculty of Dentistry, of The University of Hong Kong. After receiving scaling performed by a dental hygienist at baseline, subjects were randomly assigned to either the in-office desensitizing prophylaxis paste treatment group or the home-use desensitizing toothpaste group. Clinical assessments of dentine hypersensitivity to tactile and to thermal stimuli were performed prior to the treatment at baseline, week 4 and week 12 by a blinded examiner and subjective global assessments of dentine hypersensitivity were recorded. The responses of the subjects to both stimuli were recorded by using a pain score scale from 0 to 10 (from no pain to unbearable pain). Reponses to both tactile and thermal hypersensitivity assessments in the home-use desensitizing toothpaste group showed statistically significant differences between baseline and week 12 (tactile: 2.4 vs. 0.9; cold: 5.8 vs. 3.5, both p<0.05). There was a statistically significant difference in the tactile assessment scores (1.8 vs. 1.0, p<0.05) but not in the thermal hypersensitivity assessment scores (5.5 vs. 5.3, p>0.05) for the in-office desensitizing prophylaxis paste group. There was also a statistically significant difference in the change in thermal assessment scores between the two groups (in-office: -0.2 vs. home-use: -2.3, p<0.05) but not in the tactile hypersensitivity assessment scores (in-office: -0.9 vs. home-use: -1.2, p>0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in global subjective responses to external stimuli in the telephone interviews. Daily use of an 8% arginine and calcium carbonate toothpaste was able to reduce dentine hypersensitivity over 12 weeks but a single in-office application of prophylaxis paste of similar content was not able to provide instant and long-lasting benefits for subjects with a mild-to-moderate degree of dentine hypersensitivity. / published_or_final_version / Dentistry / Master / Master of Philosophy
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/206444 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Chan, Kit-ping, Cordelia, 陳潔萍 |
| Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
| Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PG_Thesis |
| Rights | Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License, The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works. |
| Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
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