Potential Errors in Analyzing Enamel for Fluoride Concentrations and Rates of Acid Dissolution Subsequent to Stannous Fluoride Treatments

¹ Director of Research, The Lorvic Corporation, St. Louis, Missouri 63134, USA

Dialectic considerations necessitated by the recent identification of the major reaction product of hydroxyapatite and stannous fluoride as Sn₃F₃PO₄, a material structurally unrelated to fluorapatite, show that fluoride concentrations and rates of acid dissolution of enamel treated by stannous fluoride preparations that are determined by the usual methods that involve fluoride-calcium or fluoride-phosphate concentration analyses are potentially inaccurate. However, when preparations of sodium fluoride-type compounds are used these values can be determined with reasonable accuracy by such methods.