Laboratory Studies Concerning the Effectiveness and Safety of Various Fluoride and Fluoride-Phosphate Systems

¹ Departments of Preventive Dentistry and Biochemistry, Indiana University School of Dentistry, Indianapolis, Indiana

A series of studies has been conducted to determine the amount of tin and fluoride uptake, enamel decalcification, and reduction in enamel solubility with seven different fluoride and fluoride-phosphate treatments, using each fluoride system at two different concentrations of fluoride (1,000 ppm F and 1.63 percent F) and at four pH values from 1.5 to 6.0.

The results of these studies indicated that fluoride uptake has no appreciable correlation with the amount of protection afforded the enamel surface by the various treatment procedures employed in this study. These data also showed that the use of non-tin-containing systems at low pH values results in a pronounced decalcification of enamel that was greatly decreased by the presence of tin. These studies further showed a pronounced variation in results obtained with various different enamel solubility technics and showed an inverse relationship between the pH of the treatment solution (if that solution contained tin) and the amount of tin uptake in enamel in regard to the amount of protection against enamel dissolution by weak organic acids.