Paper: Wear of Pro Seal ™ after simulated

tooth-brush abrasion (IADR/AADR/CADR

87th General Session and Exhibition (April
1-4, 2009)
581 Wear of Pro Seal™ after simulated tooth-brush
abrasion
Location: Exhibit Hall D (Miami Beach Convention Center)
J.S. HOCHSTRASSER, R.N. STALEY, and F. QIAN, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Introduction: Pro Seal™ (PS) (Reliance Orthodontic Products, Itasca, IL) is used to protect
enamel from demineralization during orthodontic treatment. Tooth-brush wear of PS has not
been investigated.
Objectives: The purpose of this in vitro pilot study was to measure the wear of PS after being
subjected to tooth brush abrasion (TBA) for 2, 2.5, and 3 years.
Methods: Thirty five extracted human 3rd molars were randomly divided into 4 groups. Group
1(n=8) had 2 years of TBA (15,000 brush strokes). Group 2 (n=7) had 2.5 years of TBA (18,750
brush strokes). Group 3 (n=8) had 3 years of TBA (22,500 brush strokes). Group 4 (n=12) was
not abraded (control). Abrasion was conducted in a tooth-brushing machine [Proto-tech,
Portland, OR] using medium Oral-B brushes and non-fluoridated Crest tooth paste. Three
microtome sections were taken from each tooth and PS thickness was measured with Image Pro
Express software. The mean thickness for each tooth was used for analysis. A one-way ANOVA
with post hoc Tukey-Kramer's or Dunnett's test was used to compare difference between groups
(alpha = 0.05).
Results: Mean PS thickness in microns for the Groups were: Group 1(105.4±29.3; Group 2
(130.2±41.4); Group 3 (126.9±45.3); Group 4 (139.5±31.3). Although the ANOVA showed no
overall difference between the groups for thickness of PS (p = 0.2557), a two sample t-test
showed a significant difference between the control (Group 4) and Group 1 [2 year abrasion] (p
= 0.0247). The t-test showed no significance between the control group and Group 2 [2.5 year
abrasion] (p = 0.5872) and Group 3 [3 year abrasion] (p = 0.4707).
Conclusion: Mean wear was minimal (18.6 microns), averaged 13.3% of control thickness, and
was similar among groups.
This research was supported by a Dows Research Award