Beneficial effects seen with most desensitising toothpastes.

Methods: PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled trials (CENTRAL) in Cochrane Library and Embase. A manual search of the relevant articles was also applied to identify additional studies. Only articles published in English were selected. Contact with the author of a study was attempted if there was insufficient information in publication. Methods: Two authors independently assessed the eligibility of all studies retrieved from the databases. Only randomised controlled trials reporting the effect of toothpaste on dentine hypersensitivity were included. Methods: Two authors independently abstracted data and bias was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration tool for risk of bias. Standardised mean differences and 95% confidence intervals were calculated and random effects meta-analysis conducted.

Results: Thirty-one RCTs involving a total of 2436 patients were included. A majority of studies (23) were considered to be of moderate quality, three of high quality and five of low quality. Meta-analysis showed that five of the toothpastes had a desensitising effect with only strontium-containing toothpastes having no significant effect.

Conclusions: The review found sufficient evidence to support the use of potassium-, stannous fluoride-, calcium sodium phosphosilicate- and arginine-containing desensitising toothpaste for dentine hypersensitivity. It found no significant desensitising effect difference between strontium-containing toothpaste and a placebo.