The Effectiveness of a Calcium Sodium Phosphosilicate Desensitizer in Reducing Cervical Dentin Hypersensitivity

ABSTRACTBackgroundNovaMin (NovaMin Technology, Alachua, Fla.) was introduced into the dental market as a desensitizer in December 2004. However, to the authors' knowledge, no researchers yet have evaluated the effectiveness of 100 percent NovaMin powder with NovaMin-containing toothpaste in reducing dentin hypersensitivity compared with the effectiveness of NovaMin-containing toothpaste only and a desensitizing toothpaste containing potassium nitrate as a control.MethodsThe authors divided 60 participants randomly into three groups: NovaMin powder with NovaMin-containing toothpaste (group 1), a placebo powder with NovaMin-containing toothpaste (group 2) and a placebo powder with the control toothpaste (group 3). The authors used tactile and cold stimuli and a visual analog scale to evaluate participants' pain at baseline, immediately after powder application and at one week, two weeks and four weeks after powder application. They analyzed data by using Friedman and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for within-group comparison. They used Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests for between-group comparison. They considered P < .05 to be statistically significant.ResultsGroups 1 and 2 showed significant hypersensitivity reduction over baseline at all time points. Group 3 showed significant hypersensitivity reduction at one week onward. Group 1 showed significant improvement compared with groups 2 and 3, except for response to tactile stimulus at four weeks with group 2. Between groups 2 and 3, there were significant differences at two and four weeks.Conclusions and Clinical ImplicationsThe use of NovaMin powder and NovaMin-containing toothpaste for hypersensitivity reduction is more effective than the use of a desensitizing toothpaste containing potassium nitrate and fluoride.