Effect of in situ aspartame mouthwash to prevent intrinsic and extrinsic erosive tooth wear

BACKGROUND: The aim was to evaluate whether aspartame regular mouthwash prior to erosive challenges with citric or hydrochloric acids would be able to prevent erosive enamel wear. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This randomized, single blind in situ study was conducted with 3 crossover phases of 5 days. Polished bovine enamel blocks (n=252) were randomly divided among 6 groups/ 3 phases/ 21 volunteers. The groups under study were: aspartame solution (0.024% of aspartame in deionized water - experimental group), deionized water (negative-control) and stannous-containing solution (Elmex® Erosion Protection Dental Rinse; positive-control); subjected to erosion on citric acid or hydrochloric acid. Four times per day the volunteers rinsed the intraoral appliance with the respective solutions (in situ) prior to immersion of half of the appliance in 0.05M citric acid and the other half in 0.01M hydrochloric acid for 120 seconds (extraoral). The response variable was enamel loss by profilometry. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey’s test (p<0.05). RESULTS: No difference on enamel loss was found between aspartame solution and deionized water. Stannous-solution resulted in less enamel loss compared to deionized water. Hydrochloric acid resulted in higher enamel loss than citric acid. CONCLUSIONS: In this model, aspartame was not able to prevent erosive tooth wear against citric or hydrochloric acids. Key words:Dental erosion, aspartame, stannous fluoride, citric acid, hydrochloric acid.