SUMMARY
Purpose
Although damage to the structural integrity of the tooth is not usually considered a significant problem associated with tooth bleaching, there have been some reported negative effects of bleaching on dental hard tissues in vitro. More studies are needed to determine whether the observed in vitro effects have practical clinical implications regarding tooth structural durability.
Objectives
This in situ study evaluated the effect of 10% and 15% carbamide peroxide (CP) dental bleach, applied using conventional whitening trays by participants at home, on the fracture toughness of dentin.
Methods
Ninety-one adult volunteers were recruited (n ≈ 30/group). Compact fracture toughness specimens (approximately 4.5 × 4.6 × 1.7 mm) were prepared from the coronal dentin of recently extracted human molars and gamma-radiated. One specimen was fitted into a prepared slot, adjacent to a maxillary premolar, within a custom-made bleaching tray that was made for each adult participant. The participants were instructed to wear the tray containing the dentin specimen with placebo, 10% CP, or 15% CP treatment gel overnight for 14 nights and to store it in artificial saliva when not in use. Pre-bleach and post-bleach tooth color and tooth sensitivity were also evaluated using ranked shade tab values and visual analogue scales (VASs), respectively. Within 24–48 hours after the last bleach session, the dentin specimens were tested for fracture toughness using tensile loading at 10 mm/min. Analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis, χ2, Tukey's, and Mann-Whitney U tests were used for statistical analysis. The level of significance was set at p<0.05 for all tests, except for the Mann-Whitney U tests, which used a Bonferroni correction for post hoc analyses of the nonparametric data (p<0.017).
Results
The placebo, 10% CP, and 15% CP groups contained 30, 31, and 30 participants, respectively. Mean fracture toughness (+ standard deviation) for the placebo, 10% CP, and 15% CP groups were 2.3 ± 0.9, 2.2 ± 0.7, and 2.0 ± 0.5 MPa*m1/2 respectively. There were no significant differences in mean fracture toughness results among the groups (p=0.241).
The tooth sensitivity VAS scores indicated a significantly greater incidence (p=0.000) and degree of tooth sensitivity (p=0.049 for VAS change and p=0.003 for max VAS) in the bleach groups than in the placebo group. The color change results showed generally greater color change in the bleach groups than in the placebo group (p=0.008 for shade guide determination and p=0.000 for colorimeter determination).
Conclusions
There were no significant differences in in situ dentin fracture toughness results among the groups. The results of this study provide some reassurance that dentin is not overtly weakened by the bleaching protocol used in this study. However, the lack of a statistically significant difference cannot be used to state that there is no effect of bleach on dentin fracture toughness.
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