Clinical comparison of anticalculus dentifrices: a three-month study of Thai children and teenagers.

A three-month, double-blind, parallel clinical study was conducted to evaluate the effects of three dentifrices on supragingival calculus formation. The products tested were a pyrophosphate/Gantrez copolymer, silica based dentifrice containing 0.243% sodium fluoride, a zinc citrate dentifrice containing 1.2% sodium monofluorophosphate in an alumina abrasive system, and a sodium fluoride/silica based placebo dentifrice. Using baseline Volpe-Manhold calculus scores, 150 Thai elementary school children in Chonburi Province were stratified into three balanced groups. All children then received a whole mouth oral prophylaxis and were randomly assigned one of the three test dentifrices. The children used only their assigned dentifrice for the next three months. At the end of three months, the study dentifrice containing pyrophosphate/copolymer reduced supragingival calculus deposits by 35% compared to the placebo dentifrice. This reduction was statistically significant at p less than .01. The pyrophosphate/copolymer dentifrice was also significantly better than the zinc citrate dentifrice at the p less than .01 level in reducing calculus scores. The zinc citrate dentifrice scores were not found to be significantly different from the placebo dentifrice scores on calculus reduction.