DHEQ shows good psychometric properties in both a general population and clinical sample. Its use can further our understanding of the subjective impacts of dentine sensitivity.

Remineralization of eroded enamel by dentifrices containing similar sources/concentrations of fluoride was investigated in situ. Fifty-three subjects completed a double-blind crossover study with 3 randomly assigned dentifrice treatments: placebo (0 ppm F, PD); reference (1,450 ppm NaF, RD) and test (1,450 ppm NaF + 5% KNO₃, TD). Fluoride availability for each dentifrice was analyzed in vitro by standard tests (1-min fluoride release rate and enamel fluoride uptake). The subjects wore palatal appliances holding bovine enamel specimens previously eroded in vitro. Surface microhardness was determined before and after the in vitro erosive challenge, after in situ remineralization and after a second in vitro erosive challenge. ANOVA and pairwise comparisons were performed (α = 0.05). TD was superior to RD in the fluoride release tests, but similar to RD in the enamel fluoride uptake test. The mean percent surface microhardness recovery was 21.9 (standard deviation 8.0) for PD, 28.6 (8.0) for RD and 36.0 (8.0) for TD. The mean percent relative erosion resistance change was –58.8 (12.7) for PD, –31.3 (12.7) for RD and –27.3 (12.6) for TD. Both fluoride-containing dentifrices provided superior remineralization (p < 0.001) and erosion resistance (p < 0.001) compared to PD. The percent surface microhardness recovery demonstrated by the TD was significantly greater than for the RD (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference (p = 0.073) between TD and RD in relative resistance to further erosive challenge. The results suggest that fluoride availability may be different in dentifrices with similar sources/concentrations of fluoride, providing different levels of remineralization of eroded enamel.

No abstract

The 15-item short form derived with the item impact method performed better than other short forms and appears to be sufficiently robust for use in individual patients.

The current fMRI study investigated cortical processing of electrically induced painful tooth stimulation of both maxillary canines and central incisors in 21 healthy, right-handed volunteers. A constant current, 150% above tooth specific pain perception thresholds was applied and corresponding online ratings of perceived pain intensity were recorded with a computerized visual analog scale during fMRI measurements. Lateralization of cortical activations was investigated by a region of interest analysis. A wide cortical network distributed over several areas, typically described as the pain or nociceptive matrix, was activated on a conservative significance level. Distinct lateralization patterns of analyzed structures allow functional classification of the dental pain processing system. Namely, certain parts are activated independent of the stimulation site, and hence are interpreted to reflect cognitive emotional aspects. Other parts represent somatotopic processing and therefore reflect discriminative perceptive analysis. Of particular interest is the observed amygdala activity depending on the stimulated tooth that might indicate a role in somatotopic encoding. Based on the model of a lateral and medial pain system, we hypothesized that within the cortical pain circuitry, certain brain areas be activated dependent on the stimulation side and others showing lateralized or bilateral hemispheric activity independent of the side of stimulus application. MaterIals and Methods PartIcIPantsTwenty-one neurologically healthy subjects (8 female/13 male, age 20-44, all right-handed (Annett, 1970) with no dental pain experience during the preceding year participated in the experiment. Inclusion criteria required test teeth to be caries free, vital, and without attachment loss. Dental and periodontal pathologies were excluded by professional dental and radiographic examinations of maxillary teeth. Subjects received detailed information about the experimental procedure and provided written informed consent. The study was approved by the local ethics committee and was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki for treatment of experimental human subjects. exPerIMental MaterIalMaxillary alginate impressions were taken from the subjects' dentitions for fabrication of soft dental acrylic splints. Four pairs of stainless steel electrodes were embedded in each individual dental splint opposite the labial and palatal surface center of the target teeth, namely maxillary canines and central incisors (Figure 1). They served as anode and cathode during electric stimulation. In order to minimize electric resistance during stimulation, a round piece of hydrogel (AG602-6, AMGEL Technologies, Lystrup, Denmark) with 3 mm diameter was placed between the tooth and anode and cathode, respectively, and was covered with a thin layer of toothpaste (Signal Microgranuli, Unilever, Zug, Switzerland).Electric stimulation was performed by means of the portable system Compex Motion System (Keller et al., 2002) and the exper...