Effect of enamel surface coating on staining capability due to iron containing supplements on primary teeth: An in vitro study.

BACKGROUND: Iron supplements prescribed to anemic children may results in teeth staining. Possible methods for preventing staining of primary teeth following exposure to iron supplements are need of an hour.

AIM: This study was conducted with the aim to assess effect of enamel surface coating on staining capability of iron containing supplements in primary teeth.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This is an in vitro Experimental study.

METHODS: Hundred and forty-four primary incisors with intact crowns were sequentially numbered and randomly divided into four main groups of 36 samples receiving different enamel surface coating such as no surface coating, MI fluoride varnish™, GC G-coat Plus™ and GC-Equia® -forte-coat. Each group was subdivided into two groups, namely A (sound teeth) and B (artificially demineralized teeth). All the samples were immersed in 250 ml artificial saliva containing 10 ml of iron supplement to make the iron concentration 100 mg. The shade of the teeth was measured at baseline and at 90 days, using VITA Easy shade® V digital spectrophotometer. The data was statistically analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses was made via SPSS 23.

RESULTS: Overall color change was found to be significantly less at the end of 90th day in sound samples when GC-Equia® -forte-coat was used as an enamel surface coating with pvalue of 0.017. In demineralized samples the overall color change was least at the end of 90th day when MI Varnish™ used as an enamel surface coating with P = 0.042.

CONCLUSIONS: GC-Equia® -forte-coat, MI Varnish™ and GC-G-coat-plus™ can be used as a preventive or a precautionary measure to minimizes the staining of teeth. The amount of color change at the end of 90 days with GC-Equia® -forte-coat was least followed by MI varnish™, GC G coat Plus™ and control group.