Effects of Treatment with Various Remineralizing Agents on the Microhardness of Demineralized Enamel Surface

Background and aims. Remineralization of incipient caries is one of the goals in dental health care. The present study aimed at comparing the effects of casein phosphopeptideamorphous calcium phosphate complex (CPPACP), Remin Pro®, and 5% sodium fluoride varnish on remineralization of enamel lesions.Materials and methods. In this in vitro study, 60 enamel sles were randomly allocated to six groups of 10. After four days of immersion in demineralizing solution, microhardness of all sles was measured. Afterward, groups 13 underwent onetime treatment with fluoride varnish, CPPACP, and Remin Pro®, respectively. Microhardness of groups 46 was measured not only after onemonth treatment with the abovementioned materials (for eight hours a day), but also after reexposing to the demineralizing solution. The results were analyzed by oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA), repeated measures ANOVA, and Fisher’s least significant difference (LSD) test.Results. None of the regimens could increase microhardness in groups 13. However, onemonth treatment regimens in groups 46 caused a significant increase in microhardness. The greatest microhardness was detected in the group treated with CPPACP (P = 0.001). In addition, although microhardness reduced following redemineralization in all three groups, the mean reduction was minimum in the CPPACPtreated group (P < 0.001).Conclusion. While longterm repeated application of all compounds improved microhardness, the remineralization potential of CPPACP was significantly higher than that of Remin Pro® and sodium fluoride varnish.