The effect of oxidizing water on metallic restorations in the mouth: in vitro reduction behavior of oxidizing water.

Mouth-rinsing with oxydized water which contains electrolytically generated chlorine is known to hinder dental plaque formation and growth, but it also accelerates the deterioration of metallic restorations in the mouth. The present work consists of an in vitro study to elucidate the electrochemical reactions involved in the reduction of oxydized water on dental alloys through a systematic investigation of the potentiostatic polarization behavior of dental alloy electrodes. The five dental alloys selected for investigation were gold alloy, gold alloy containing platinum, silver-palladium-gold alloy, conventional amalgam and high copper amalgam. The corrosion potentials of all dental alloy electrodes were shown to be more noble in oxydized water than in 0.1N sodium chloride solution. The potential differences between the corrosion potentials were relatively small in the case of amalgam electrodes. The polarization curves for all of the dental alloy electrodes in oxydized water revealed reduction currents of chlorine, hypochlorous acid, dissolved oxygen and oxonium ion. The reduction of chlorine and hypochlorous acid started at a more noble potential than that of dissolved oxygen. The dental alloys studied, except the amalgams, did not dissolve excessively at the corrosion potentials in oxydized water.