RESEARCH ARTICLE
In vivo Spectrophotometric Assessment of the Tooth Whitening Effectiveness of Nite White 10% with Amorphous Calcium Phosphate, Potassium Nitrate and Fluoride, Over a 6-month Period
Sias R Grobler*, Abdul Majeed, Mohamad H Moola, Roelof J Rossouw , Theuns van Wyk Kotze
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2011Volume: 5
First Page: 18
Last Page: 23
Publisher ID: TODENTJ-5-18
DOI: 10.2174/1874210601105010018
Article History:
Received Date: 7/5/2010Revision Received Date: 11/8/2010
Acceptance Date: 9/2/2010
Electronic publication date: 2/3/2011
Collection year: 2011

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
To clinically evaluate the effectiveness of Nite White 10% carbamide peroxide with amorphous calcium phosphate, potassium nitrate and fluoride over a 6-month follow-up period. Nite White was applied nightly for 14 days, according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The color of teeth 11 and 21 of twenty one subjects was measured with a spectrophotometer (L*; a*; b*). Subjects were instructed to take note of any tooth sensitivity and gingival irritation. For all three components (L*, a* and b*) statistical significant differences (p<0.05) in the values between base-line (pre-bleaching) and; after treatment, after 1-month, after 3-months as well as after 6-months were found (Wilcoxon Signed Rank Sum Test). Significant differences were also found amongst the ΔE*ab (0-14days) values and; ΔE*ab (0-1 month), ΔE*ab (0-3 months) and ΔE*ab (0-6 months). However, no significant differences were found between pairs of ΔE*ab (0-1 month), ΔE*ab (0-3 months) and ΔE*ab (0-6months). The decrease in ΔE*ab was the highest after 1 month (~30%). The highest decrease in L* was about 58% after 1 month. Over the 14-day treatment period tooth sensitivity was 24.5%. Conclusions: Nite White ACP demonstrated significant tooth-whitening (unit increase = 5.29) with a low tooth sensitivity (25%) probably due to the presence of amorphous calcium phosphate, potassium nitrate, and fluoride. The whitening effect decreased the most after one month and then maintained well even after a 6 month period (units 3.89).
Clinical implications
The product is a good tooth whitener with a color increase of about 5 units accompanied with a low sensitivity.