Background. The authors conducted an in vitro study to compare the hardness of normal enamel with enamel eroded by a cola soft drink and enamel remineralized by casein phosphopeptide–amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP-ACP) or artificial saliva.
Materials and Methods. The authors immersed 40 extracted sound central and lateral incisors alternately in a cola soft drink or artificial saliva for 10 cycles of five seconds each. They repeated this procedure two times at six-hour intervals. They divided the samples randomly into four groups and applied CPP-ACP to the samples, immersed them in artificial saliva, deionized water or both. They measured the hardness on the labial surface at baseline, after erosion and after remineralization and analyzed the data with one-way repeated-measures analysis of variance and two-way analysis of variance.
Results. The cola soft drink significantly decreased enamel hardness. CPP-ACP and CPP-ACP and artificial saliva significantly increased the hardness of eroded enamel. CPP-ACP and CPP-ACP and artificial saliva increased the hardness of eroded enamel significantly more than artificial saliva did.
Conclusions. CPP-ACP increased the hardness of eroded enamel. CPP-ACP had a greater effect on enamel hardness than did artificial saliva.
Clinical Implications. Consumption of a cola soft drink can cause tooth erosion. CPP-ACP may significantly remineralize eroded enamel compared with artificial saliva.
