Purpose: To present an overview of clinical evidence of strontium acetate and arginine-based toothpastes, in order to determine which of these substances was the most effective to relieve dentin hypersensitivity (DH).
Methods: An electronic search was performed in PubMed, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, LILACS, Web of Science and Open Grey databases. The search strategy included MeSH terms, synonyms and keywords with no language or date restriction. Randomized controlled clinical trial studies that compared the effectiveness of arginine/calcium carbonate and strontium acetate toothpaste were included. The risk of bias in the included studies was assessed and classified through the Cochrane Collaboration's common scheme for bias. Data were subgrouped and heterogeneity was tested via comprehensive meta-analysis.
Results: A total of 3,883 potentially relevant studies were identified. After title and abstract examination, only six studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria and were classified as having a "low risk of bias". The majority of studies found better results for arginine/calcium carbonate in comparison with strontium acetate in alleviating DH. Only one study reported superior efficacy of strontium acetate, and only for tactile stimuli, after 8 weeks of home use. The arginine/calcium carbonate-based toothpaste provided a higher level of efficacy in terms of DH relief than the strontium-based toothpaste.