Effect of prophylactic treatments on the superficial roughness of dental tissues and of two esthetic restorative materials.

Dental prophylaxis is a common way to remove dental plaque and stain, both undesirable factors in most dentistry procedures. However, besides cleaning the tooth surface, prophylactic techniques may increase the surface roughness of restorations and dental tissues, which, in turn, may result in plaque accumulation, superficial staining and superficial degradation. This study evaluated the effect of three prophylactic techniques--sodium bicarbonate jet, pumice paste and whiting paste--on the superficial roughness of two restorative materials--a composite resin and a compomer--and on the superficial roughness of two dental surfaces--enamel and cementum/dentin--through rugosimetric and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. Statistical analysis of the rugosimetric data showed that the use of pumice paste on enamel produced a significantly smoother surface than the natural surface. However, comparing the effect of the three techniques, prophylaxis with the pumice paste produced a rougher surface than did the other techniques as regards enamel and cementum/dentin probably due to its abrasiveness. On composite resin, the pumice paste only produced a rougher surface than did the whiting paste. On compomer, all of the applied treatments produced similar results. Based on rugosimetric and SEM analysis, we could conclude that the prophylactic treatments employed did not improve roughness of the studied surfaces. As to the effects of the techniques, they were different depending on the surfaces on which the prophylactic treatments were applied.