BEJING—Results from a Chinese clinical trial showed toothpastes containing 5.53 percent potassium citrate were effective in reducing dentine hypersensitivity (Beijing Da Xue Xue Bao. 2011;43(1):112-6). The randomized, double blinded, controlled, clinical trial recruited and randomly allocated qualified subjects into a test group and a control group according to gender and age group. At baseline, 67 subjects (36 in test group, 31 in control group) were recruited into the study. The dentine hypersensitivity was evaluated by a subject self-perceived short, sharp pain in visual analogue scale (VAS) in response to a blast of cold air from a triple syringe administered to a tooth surface in 1 cm. Test toothpastes, containing 5.53 percent potassium citrate and 0.76 percent sodium monofluorophosphate, and control toothpastes, containing only 0.76 percent sodium monofluorophosphate were delivered to the study subjects in the test and control group, respectively. The subjects were asked to brush their teeth twice a day, and at least one minute each time. During the eight-week study period, a subjective evaluation of changes in the individuals overall sensitivity to everyday stimuli was also scored in VAS.
At the end of the trial data of 57 subjects (31 in test group, 26 in control group) was used for analysis. From baseline to eight-week evaluation, the mean VAS values to cold air and subjects' self-perceived VAS values of the subjects decreased both in the test and control groups. Furthermore, the reduction in mean VAS values to cold air from baseline to four-week of the test subjects was statistically significant higher than that of the control (1.12 versus 0.32, P<0.05). The reduction in mean subjects' self-perceived VAS values from baseline to 8-week of the test subjects was statistically significant higher than that of the control (1.59 versus 0.24, P<0.05).