ABSTRACT
Objective: To evaluate the contemporary remineralizing efficacy of Gum Arabic varnish and its implementation into clinical practice.
Materials and Methods: A total of 90 teeth with initial carious lesions in 42 participants randomly assigned into 3 equal groups, group 1 received laboratory made Gum Arabic varnish, group 2 received casein phosphopeptide amorphous calcium phosphate fluoride (CPP-ACPF) varnish (MI Varnish) and group 3 received 5% sodium fluoride (NaF) varnish (Profluorid Varnish), Remineralization efficacy and caries lesion activity was evaluated at baseline (T0) and after 1 month (T1), 3 months (T2) and 6 months (T3) with 2 blinded assessors using DIAGNOdent and Nyvad criteria score.
Results: According to the DIAGNOdent scores intergroup comparison between all materials have shown no statistically significant difference within follow up periods while at 3 and 6 months' intergroup comparison revealed statistically significant difference (P<0.0001), while the Nyvad criteria intergroup comparison between all materials have shown no statistically significant difference at baseline (P = 1.0000), there was statistically significant difference at 1, 3 and 6 months (P <0.0001, P = 0.0045 and P = 0.0139) respectively.
Conclusion: Although Gum Arabic Varnish helped in arresting 85% of the active initial carious lesions, it didn't produce effective remineralization to the lesions at 6 months follow up. Both MI Varnish and Profluorid Varnish showed similar remineralization potential and were able to arrest all the active lesions.