Effect of Herbal-Toothpaste and White-Tea on Remineralization of Initial-Enamel Caries

Objectives: The aim of this in-vitro study was to evaluate the effect of a ginger-honey containing herbal-toothpaste and white tea used as a mouthwash on remineralization of initial enamel caries.
Methods: 80 enamel specimens obtained from extracted human non-carious third molars’ buccal surfaces were used and initial microhardness values (BM) were determined. Following immersion of specimens in demineralization solution for 72h to obtain initial enamel caries, demineralization microhardness measurements were performed (DM). Then, specimens were randomly divided into two groups as fluoridated (Ipana Enamel Regeneration; Procter&Gamble) and herbal-toothpaste (Gumgumix; Beka Ilac A.S.) which were further randomly divided into four subgroups according to the remineralizing agents; control, CPP-ACPF, white tea and CPP-ACPF+white tea combination (n=10). All specimens in each group were subjected to pH-cycling for 21-days and remineralization microhardness (RM) was performed. The differences of each specimens’ RM-DM values were statistically evaluated with one-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey HSD tests (p<0.05).
Results: There were no significant differences between herbal (11,49±8.92) and fluoridated-toothpastes (11.48±10.16) RM-DM microhardness (p=0.986). With fluoridated-toothpaste, the combined (39.45±12.73) or separate use of white tea (49.87±12.96) and CPP-ACPF (50.04±14.06) showed significantly higher RM-DM microhardness than the separate use of the toothpaste (p<0.05), while separate use of agents showed similar microhardness as the combinated use (p>0.05). Herbal-toothpaste+CPP-ACPF (22.75±10.84) showed significantly similar remineralization effect as the herbal-toothpaste+white tea (18.82±15.56) (p=0.109), whereas the combined use of white tea+CPP-ACPF (40.84±9.91) exhibited significantly higher RM-DM microhardness (p<0.05).
Conclusions: Ginger-honey containing herbal-toothpaste results in similar effectiveness as the fluoridated-toothpaste in remineralization of the initial enamel caries lesions. The separate use of white tea and CPP-ACPF along with the fluoridated-toothpaste significantly increases the remineralization effect however, this effect does not exist with herbal-toothpaste. The combined use of agents along with both toothpastes significantly increases the remineralization effect.