Effect of Whitening Mouthwashes on Dental Color: Spectrometric X Visual Analysis

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the regression of color and whitening effectiveness of Colgate Plax Whitening, Oral B Pro Health Clinic Protection and Cepacol Plus Whitening mouthwashes in bovine teeth through visual analysis using VITA Classic scale and by the use VITA Easyshade® Advance spectrophotometer.

Methods: 100 bovine incisors were selected and divided into 4 groups, 3 experimental groups and 1 control group. Specimens were stained with black tea for 5 days and then underwent mouthwash simulation use for 30 days following manufacturer’s daily recommendation. The color measurements were taken at the middle third in a standardized way, placing specimens on a white background to avoid potential absorption effect in any of the color parameters. Measurements were taken before and after mouthwash use, in order to obtain the color differences (ΔE). Data was submitted to Student’s t-test and Wilcoxon and Spearman’s Correlation Coefficient was applied to verify the correlation between both methods.









Results: Dental color change was considered clinically visible when ΔE is greater than 3.7 unities. The obtained results using visual and spectrometric scale were as follows: Colgate Plax Whitenning 4.84/5.09; Oral B Pro health Clinic Protection 0.02/0.0; and Cepacol Plus Whitening1.26/0.0. The difference between the visual assessment and digital spectrophotometric analysis was statistically significant (p>0.05) .
Conclusions: The use of hydrogen peroxide (Colgate Plax Whitening) in the composition of mouthwash was effective in color regression after 30 days of use and its color remained stable in both visual and spectrophotometric analysis. However, mouthwashes based on poloxamer 407 (Oral B Pro Health Clinic Protection and Cepacol Plus Whitening), showed inefficient results. Moreover, no differences were found between the type of analysis, visual and spectrometric.