Combined remineralizing effect of arginine and fluoride on artificially demineralized human primary dentin evaluated using quantitative light induced fluorescence.

Introduction: One the most common chronic dental diseases affecting children is dental caries. Dentin caries is a condition in which caries has progressed to the dentin and caused a significant depth of lesion. Clinical studies have revealed that an increased caries risk is associated with a decreased alkali-producing capacity of the microbial populations colonizing the oral cavity of adults, which arginine somewhat compensates for.

Aims: To evaluate the remineralizing efficacy of fluoridated toothpaste, with fluoride-arginine containing toothpaste on demineralized dentin of primary teeth using quantitative light-induced fluorescence™.

Materials and methods: Forty-five primary molars were decoronated and sectioned to prepare dentin specimens and mounted in an acrylic block in a uniform manner using a customized acrylic jig. Samples were randomized into three groups, were subjected to demineralization to create artificial dentin caries lesion. Following this, all the 45 samples were subjected to multispecies bacterial pH cycling for 21 days. All the specimens were evaluated for postdemineralization, pH cycling day 7, 14, and 21 on QLF™.

Results: On day 21, maximum fluorescence gain was observed by the positive control group followed by the arginine and negative control group. The variation observed between positive control and arginine group was found to be statistically significant.

Conclusions: An in vitro development of artificial caries such as demineralized lesion on primary dentin sample using plaque biofilm was observed successfully under QLF after 72 h. Arginine in combination with fluoride showed almost similar remineralization of demineralized primary dentin compared to fluoride alone after 21 days of multispecies bacterial pH cycling.