Author(s): Gurpreet Singh Brar, Subha Dogra and Ruchi Arora
Background: Dental caries, a dynamic process occurs when demineralization exceeds remineralization. With the advent of herbal dentifrices in the current world, it becomes necessary to evaluate the potential of remineralizing efficacy of herbal dentifrices specifically those available in the motherland of herbal medicine, India.
Aim: To evaluate the remineralizing potential of different herbal dentifrices available in market.
Objective: To compare and evaluate the efficacy of three different herbal dentifrices on remineralization of teeth.
Materials and Methods: Sixty non-carious premolars were included in this comparative study. The specimens were immersed in a demineralizing solution for 96 hours and depth of initial carious lesions formed was evaluated. The specimens were then equally divided into three groups of twenty teeth each (n=20) and exposed to pH cycle of 7 days where three herbal fluoride free dentifrices were used as remineralizing agents and further the remineralization depths were viewed under polarized light microscope. Data obtained was analyzed using ANOVA at (p<0.0001).
Results: Polarized light microscope image analysis revealed that all the three herbal dentifrices had a remineralizing potential. A statistically significant difference was seen in Group III (Dabur Meswak) followed by Groups II (Colgate Herbal) and I (Hiora-K) at (p<0.0001).
Conclusion: All three non-fluoridated herbal dentifrices evaluated under this study had a considerable remineralizing potential. It can be considered for use as a valuable therapeutic aid.
