The effect of saliva on fluoride release by a glass-ionomer filling material.

The initial aim of this study was to investigate the effect of saliva and the formation of pellicle on the fluoride release in vitro of the glass-ionomer filling material, Chemfil Superior. For the first study glass-ionomer discs of 6 mm in diameter and 1.5 mm thick were made. Ten discs were immersed in whole stimulated saliva each day for 10 min and 10 control discs were immersed in deionized water. For the remaining 23 h and 50 min of each day, over the 20-day experimental period, both test and control discs were placed in deionized water. A considerable amount of fluoride was released on the first day (14.5 ppm F control and 13.3 ppm F test). The concentration of fluoride released on the second day fell sharply to 5.3 ppm F for controls and 4.9 ppm F for tests. This release had almost reached a plateau by day 10 and at day 20 the pellets continued to release low levels of fluoride. The concentration of fluoride released was only slightly higher for controls than for test discs when both were immersed in deionized water until day 20. However, during the 10-min period between 1.5 and 2 times as much fluoride was released into the deionized water as into saliva until day 20 when the ratio fell to 1.2:1. The second experiment assessed fluoride release when specimens were incubated for 1 h using an identical protocol. Again, less fluoride was released from the saliva-coated specimens compared with the controls (17%), which was not substantially different to the comparable 10-min samples (13%). This study indicates that saliva retards the release of fluoride from glass-ionomer and that this retarding effect is still present when discs are subsequently immersed in water compared with those that were placed in water alone. This suggests that salivary deposits have formed within minutes of immersion in saliva. This retarding effect was observed throughout the study period with the exception of the 20-day samples which had been incubated in saliva for 10 min.