The objective evaluate was the influence of prolonged tooth bleaching with 10 % carbamide peroxide (10CP) on tooth enamel mass variation. Ten healthy bovine incisor teeth were divided (n = 5) into G1 -storage in distilled water and G2 -storage in artificial saliva. The samples were weighed in an electronic analytical balance at the following times: T0 -before application of the bleaching gel, T1 -after 14 days of bleaching (the time recommended by the manufacturer), T2 -after 21 days of bleaching (50 % increase in the time recommended by the manufacturer), and T3 -after 28 days of bleaching (100 % increase in the time recommended by the manufacturer). The data were subjected to ANOVA for related samples (p = 0.05). The highest mean was observed in G2 (0.5982 g) and the lowest mean was observed in G1 (0.3074 g) at T2 and T3, respectively. Significant differences were observed between the groups at all times. Overall, 10CP caused variation in the enamel mass after a 100 % increase in the use time recommended by the manufacturer, with a decrease in mass when distilled water was used as the storage medium and an increase when artificial saliva was used.

The objective of this study was to determine the enamel mass variation after a prolonged bleaching treatment using a calcium-containing 4% hydrogen peroxide gel Twenty sound bovine incisors were randomly assigned to two groups (n=10) stored in G1) distilled water and G2) artificial saliva. An electronic analytic scale (.000 grams measurements) was used to determine the enamel mass variation before and after the bleaching procedures at the following evaluation times: T0) before the bleaching procedures; T1) 14 days of treatment, as instructed by the manufacturer; T2) 21 days of treatment, 50 % beyond what is instructed by the manufacturer; and T3) 28 days of treatment, 100 % beyond what is instructed by the manufacturer. The highest mean was observed at T2/G2 (0.3259 g) and the lowest at T2/G1 (0.3265 g). The specimens stored in distilled water (G1) showed 6 % mass reduction when T0 (0.3277 g) was compared to T3 (0.3277 g). On the other hand, the specimens stored in artificial saliva exhibited a significant mass increase of 19 % when T0 (0.3521 g) was compared to T3 (0.3528 g). Prolonged bleaching therapy using 4 % hydrogen peroxide with calcium resulted in a massive reduction when water was used as a storage medium. When the specimens were stored in artificial saliva, an increase in mass was observed, probably due to the mineralizing properties of the artificial saliva.

The literature is still scarce on studies describing S. mutans global gene expression under clinical conditions such as those found on complex biofilms from sound root surfaces (SRS) and carious root surfaces (RC). This study aimed to investigate the S. mutans gene expression and functional profile within the metatranscriptome of biofilms from SRS and from RC in an attempt to identify enriched functional signatures potentially associated with healthy to disease transitioning process. Total RNA was extracted, and prepared libraries (SRS=10 and RC=9) were paired-end sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq2500. Read count assigned to each gene of the S. mutans UA159 strain were obtained. Differentially expressed genes (DEG) between SRS and RC were identified using the DESeq2 R package and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was performed to explore and identify functional modules related to SRS and RC. We found seventeen DEG between SRS and RC samples, with three overexpressed in RC and related to membrane protein, alanyl-tRNA synthetase and GTP-binding protein with the remaining ones overexpressed in SRS samples and related to hypothetical protein, transposon integrase, histidine kinase, putative transporter, bacteriocin immunity protein, response regulator, 6-phospho-beta-galactosidase, purine metabolism and to transcriptional regulator. Key-functional modules were identified for SRS and RC conditions based on WCGNA, being 139 hub genes found on SRS key-module and 17 genes on RC key-module. Functional analysis of S. mutans within the metatranscriptome of biofilms from sound root and from carious root revealed a similar pattern of gene expression, and only a few genes have been differentially expressed between biofilms from sound root surfaces and from root carious lesions. However, S. mutans presented a greater functional abundance in the lesion samples. Some functional patterns related to sugar (starch, sucrose, fructose, mannose and lactose) and heterofermentative metabolisms, to cell-wall biosynthesis and to acid tolerance stress seem to be enriched on carious root surfaces conferring ecological advantages to S. mutans. Altogether, the present data suggest that a functional signature may be associated with carious root lesions.