Whitening mouthwash containing hydrogen peroxide decreases enamel microhardness in vitro.

Abstract

Aim: To assess the effect of a mouthwash containing hydrogen peroxide (HP) on Knoop microhardness (KMH) of bovine enamel. Methods: Fifty-one enamel slabs were polished and divided into groups (n=17), according to the product used during 28 days: HP – mouthwash containing 1,5% of HP (4 min, once/day); CP - 10% carbamide peroxide gel (2 hours/day); AS - no treatment (kept in artificial saliva (AS). Each fragment was submitted to KMH test (three indentations/fragment, with a 50 g load for 5 sec) four times: before (baseline); during (14 and 28 days) and after (7 days immerged in AS) the bleaching treatment. The data were submitted to repeated-measures two-way ANOVA (α=0.05). Results: There was no effect of the interaction between the time and treatment factors (p=0.327). No significant effect was observed from the time factor (p = 0.054). The factor treatment showed significant effect (p =0.002). Regardless of time, the KMH of the enamel submitted to HP was lower than the value observed with the use of CP, which did not differ significantly from the control group (AS). Conclusion: Although there was a trend of decreasing enamel microhardness over time, only the mouthwash containing hydrogen peroxide had a significant effect.