This collaborative study of dentifrice-cleaning methodology and function was conducted to compare three dental stain-grading methods among 300 adults who brushed their teeth for 8 weeks with three specially formulated calcium phosphate dentifrices, which differed in dentin abrasivity. In general, with some difference in sensitivity, use of the three stain-grading methods distinguished among different groups of the population using these three dentifrices. By using the method with the greater level of magnification, a significant difference was detected earlier. The data indicate that there is a linear correlation between dentin abrasivity as measured in vitro and observed clinical stain cleaning. As the dentifrices used in this study were custom-designed and limited to the chemical family of calcium ortho-phosphates, the linear relation between abrasivity and cleaning in this study cannot necessarily be related to other abrasive systems or other abrasion levels. Either of the two study designs, that is, testing after a prophylaxis (stain accumulation) or non-prophylaxis (stain removal), is appropriate for future investigations. However, in this study, greater examiner sensitivity was observed with the design that utilized preformed pellicle stain of known history as the substrate for cosmetic tooth-cleaning.

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