Caries-risk profile variations after short-term use of 5000 ppm fluoride toothpaste

Abstract

Objective. To assess the caries risk following 6 weeks' use of 5000 ppm F toothpaste using ‘Cariogram' software. Materials and methods. A total of 34 participants, 17 mothers and their teenage children, were enrolled in a 6-week clinical trial in which they were given 5000 ppm F toothpaste. They were followed consecutively for 6 weeks with visits that were 2 weeks apart (four in total). A clinical examination was done at baseline and salivary chair-side tests to record the buffer capacity and mutans streptococci (MS) and lactobacilli (LB) counts were performed at each visit. Based on these data, seven caries-related variables were collected and inserted into the Cariogram software to calculate the actual chance of avoiding caries. Results. The use of 5000 ppm F toothpaste resulted in a statistically significant modification of the caries-risk profile, increasing the actual chance of avoiding caries in the future among the mothers and teenagers at each visit following baseline (p < 0.01). The changes essentially related to the salivary parameters (buffer capacity, MS and LB counts). A statistically significant linear trend was observed for MS counts (p < 0.01) and the number of subjects with a salivary concentration of MS < 10³ increased at each visit. The same trend was also observed for LB and buffer capacity scores (p = 0.04 and p = 0.03, respectively). Conclusions. The short-term use of 5000 ppm F toothpaste is able to reduce the caries risk, which can be clearly demonstrated using ‘Cariogram' software.