The clinical efficacy of microabrasion and microabrasion with
office bleaching in the esthetic improvement of fluorotic teeth
Dr Shila Emamieh¹, Dr Melina Amini¹, Dr Elham Zajkani¹, Dr Keivan Saati¹, Dr Arash Safaie¹,
Dr Hossein Mohammad Ebrahim², Dr Amir Ghasem³ ,Dr Hassan Torabzadeh³
1.PostGraduate student of operative department of shahid beheshti university.
2.Tutor of operative department of shahid beheshti university.
3.associate Professor of operative department of shahid beheshti university.
Background and Aim
Excessive amounts of fluoride used for the prevention of dental decay, is associated with the development
of fluorosis characterized by stains on tooth surfaces which produce esthetic concerns for the patients.
Microabrasion is the most conservative technique for the management of this disorder. The present study
assessed the esthetic improvement of the fluorotic teeth after microabrasion and microabrasion with office
bleaching.
Methods and Materials
This before-and-after clinical trial was done on 20 fluorotic teeth. Microabrasion was performed with the
application of Opalustre compound for the maximum 10 minutes until the stains will be removed following by
office bleaching. Digital images of the teeth were obtained at all stages of the treatment while the esthetic
improvements occurred in the teeth was determined by visual analogue scale (1-7) by two observers along
with color parameters of L*a*b* and total color changes (ΔE) after microabrasion, microabrasion + office
bleaching and 1 week later. The data were subjected to analysis of variance for repeated measures, LSD,
Friedman and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks tests.
Results
No significant differences were found between fluorotic area and non fluorotic area of teeth after different
stages of microabrasion regarding L*a*b* and ΔE measures. The mean L* in these stages were 5.76, 9.03
and 14.87, mean a* were 0.31, -3.5 and -5.81, mean b* were -2.29, -6.58 and -9.62 and the mean ΔE was
estimated to be 10.05, 14.51 and 20.28 respectively with significant difference being existed among these
stages (p<0.001). Also, the mean visual analogue scores for these stages were 4.15, 5.22 and 6.36
respectively again with significant differences (p<0.0001).
Conclusion
The present study showed that microabrasion technique significantly improved the esthetic appearance of
fluorotic teeth at all stages of the treatment. The least improvement was observed after microabrasion and
the most improvement was noted on 1-week later observations, while moderate results were achieved
following microabrasion and office bleaching.