The pulpal effects of brushing with a 5 percent potassium nitrate paste used for desensitization

The Efficacy of Strontium and Potassium Toothpastes in Treating Dentine Hypersensitivity: A Systematic Review

“…The study by Pillon et al [77] was also excluded since the study was based on the results of a single application of 3% potassium oxalate gel immediately following scaling and root planning procedures (SRP). The Tarbet et al [91] study was also excluded as this study only evaluated the pulpal effect following brushing with a 5% KNO 3 toothpaste. A further nine studies were excluded since these studies were reported in an abstract [47, 48, 53, 60, 61, 67, 71, 72, 93].…”

Dentinal hypersensitivity: a review

“…32 Importantly, it has been shown that potassium nitrate does not induce any pulpal changes. 33 Despite these encouraging findings it is interesting to note that a recent Cochrane Database Systematic Review failed to find strong evidence supporting the efficacy of potassium nitrate toothpaste for dentine hypersensitivity. 34 Nonetheless, this review did report that the differences which were noted were statistically significant in favour of treatment with potassium nitrate toothpaste.…”

Clinician's Guide to the Diagnosis and Management of Tooth Sensitivity

“…Treatment may be delivered in a stratifi ed manner, as indicated in Fig. A similar picture emerges when evaluating potassium-containing toothpastes despite the vast numbers of published studies (Tarbet et al 1980(Tarbet et al , 1981Silverman 1985 ;Silverman et al 1994 ;Nagata et al 1994 ;Salvato et al 1992 ;Schiff et al 1994Schiff et al , 1998Schiff et al , 2000Sowinski et al 2000Sowinski et al , 2001Waraaswapati et al 2005 ;Yates et al 2005 ), and a number of investigators have raised concerns with regard to the effi cacy of potassium-containing toothpastes which has led to the suggestion that potassium-containing toothpastes may be no more effective than regular fl uoride toothpaste (Gillam et al 1996a ;Jackson 2000 ;Cummings 2009 ). With localised or severe DH, practitioners may prefer to treat the patient directly, using an in-offi ce procedure Note 4.…”

“…classifi ed these in-offi ce treatment modalities on the basis of (1) whether they do not polymerise (varnishes/precipitants/ primers containing HEMA), (2) whether they undergo setting or polymerisation reactions (conventional glass ionomer cements, or resinreinforced glass ionomers/compomers; adhesive resin primers; adhesive resin bonding systems), (3) the use of mouthguards, (4) iontophoresis and (5) lasers. For example, the treatment of post-operative sensitivity may involve the application of a desensitiser underneath a crown or restoration (Haywood 2002 ;Jalandar et al 2012 ) as well as post-operative sensitivity following periodontal therapy , Pashley et al ( 2008 ) modifi ed Table 6.3 Summary of the published studies supporting the effi cacy of in-offi ce products (adhesives, resins and cements) Gangarosa and Park ( 1978 ), Brough et al ( 1985 ), Gupta Tarbet et al ( 1980Tarbet et al ( , 1981, Silverman ( 1985 ) Silverman et al ( 1996Silverman et al ( , 1994, Nagata et al ( 1994 ), Salvato et al ( 1992 ), Schiff et al ( 1994Schiff et al ( , 1998Schiff et al ( , 2000, Sowinski et al ( 2000Sowinski et al ( , 2001, Waraaswapati et al ( 2005 ) International) prior to the provision of an OTC desensitising toothpaste for home use (Hamlin et al 2009 ;Schiff et al 2009 ;Milleman et al 2012 ;. Generally speaking in-offi ce treatment modalities involve patients who complain of DH localised to one or two teeth with moderate to severe discomfort and as such would require immediate attention.…”