Dentin abrasion (RDA), enamel abrasion (REA) and polishing scores of dentifrices sold in Switzerland.

Assessments of the abrasion of hard dental tissues produced by different dentifrices are usually carried out on extracted teeth in the laboratory. The tests most commonly used to measure dentifrice abrasion on dentin and enamel are the radiotracer (radio-active) and profilometry methods. The radiotracer dentin (RDA) and enamel (REA) abrasion scores of the 32 dentifrices were determined using the ADA specifications. RDA and REA scores are related to a standard abrasive, calcium pyrophosphate (Ca2P2O7), which is assigned a score of 100 for the RDA method and 10 for the REA method. The same abrasive was used as the standard in the enamel polish study and assigned a score of 100. The RDA scores of the dentifrices tested varied from 37 to 203, the REA scores from 1.0 to 11.7, and the polishing scores ranged from 19.63 to 96.88. Half the dentifrices tested had RDA scores below 100.