Anti-calculus activity of a toothpaste with microgranules.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Triclosan, published as a randomized controlled trial.

A monadic, single-blind, two phase design clinical trial was used to compare the effect of the test and a negative control fluoridated toothpaste on the formation of supragingival calculus.

Subjects were stratified according to their pre-test VMI score (8-10, 10.5-12, > 12) and gender and then allocated at random to test or negative control toothpaste groups.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as teenagers and adults, both men and women.

Male and female calculus-forming volunteers, aged 18 or over, were recruited for the study following a 2-week screening phase.

All subjects were given a scale and polish of their eight lower anterior teeth at the start of both the pre-test and test phases.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and single-blind study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Triclosan group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Only one side, usually the participants, was kept unaware of whether Triclosan was given.

Subjects were supplied with a silica-based 1450 F ppm fluoridated toothpaste with no anti-calculus active for use during an 8-week pre-test phase.

Calculus was assessed at the end of the pre-test and test phases using the Volpe-Manhold index (VMI).

Subjects with < 8 mm of calculus were excluded from further participation.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Analysis of Variance, Citric Acid, Dental Calculus, Particle Size, Toothpastes, Triclosan and Zinc Compounds.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and single-blind study of Triclosan.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 1998 (Oral diseases), a journal based in Denmark.

More context: all human trials.