Effects of Propolis-Based Herbal Toothpaste on Dentine Hypersensitivity

Abstract

Introduction: The objective of this in vitro study was to compare the effectiveness of a propolis-based herbal toothpaste with 5 sodium fluoride varnishin obstructing human dentinal tubules; Scanning electron microscopy was utilised to obtain quantitative and qulitative data on tubular obstruction. Methods: Thirty-nine extracted human premolar teeth were collected. The cementum layer was removed using a water-cooled diamond bur and the smear layer using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) 17. Then, the samples were randomly divided into 3 groups (n = 13 each), as follows: group 1: dentin discs exposed to the propolis-based herbal toothpaste (Herbex); group 2: dentin discs exposed to 5 sodium fluoride varnish; and group 3: control. Then, all discs were observed and imaged in 4 non-overlapping fields by an electron microscope at 2000 pound magnification. The topography and number of open, closed, and semi-closed tubules were counted in all images. The data were analysed using Kruskal -Wallis test, Mann -Whitney U test, and Friedman test. The statistical analysis was performed with SPSS statistic 22.0 software, with a significance level of a = 0.05. Results: In pairwise comparisons of the groups considering the percentage of open, closed, and semi-closed tubules, the difference was not statistically significant between the 5 sodium fluoride varnish and propolis groups in the closed and semi-closed tubules, but it was statistically significant with the control group. Additionally, the percentage of open tubules in the propolis-based herbal toothpaste group was significantly lower than in the 5 sodium fluoride varnish and control group. Conclusions: Both propolis-based herbal toothpaste and 5 sodium fluoride varnish is effective in blocking human dentin tubules to various extents. (c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of FDI World Dental Federation. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)