Using fluoride mouthrinses before or after toothbrushing: effect on erosive tooth wear

•The use of fluoridated mouthrinse prior brushing can reduce enamel erosive wear.•For dentin, the order of application had no effect on erosive wear.•Mouthrinse and dentifrice containing fluoride and stannous reduced dentin wear. 1. To evaluate the use of fluoridated mouthrinses before or after toothbrushing on erosive tooth wear. 2. To compare the anti-erosive effect of the combination toothpaste and mouthrinse containing fluoride, with or without stannous chloride. Enamel and dentin specimens were randomly distributed into groups (n = 10 of each substrate/group): B–brushing, B + R–brushing + rinsing, and R + B–rinsing + brushing. The treatments were performed using a fluoride toothpaste (BF: 1400 ppm fluoride, as amino fluoride-AmF) combined or not with a fluoride mouthrinse (RF: 250 ppm fluoride, as AmF and sodium fluoride-NaF) or fluoride and stannous toothpaste (BF+Sn: 1400 ppm fluoride, as AmF and NaF, 3500 ppm stannous, as stannous chloride-SnCl2 and 0.5% chitosan) combined or not with fluoride and stannous mouthrinse (RF+Sn: 500 ppm fluoride, as AmF and NaF, 800 ppm stannous, as SnCl2). As control, brushing was performed with artificial saliva (BC). Specimens were submitted to a 5-day erosive-abrasive cycling model. Treatments were performed twice daily. Surface loss (SL) was determined by optical profilometry. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and Games-Howell tests (α = 0.05). For enamel, RF+BF and RF+Sn+BF+Sn presented significantly lower SL than the control, with RF+BF being significantly lower than RF+Sn+BF+Sn. For dentin, BC had the lowest SL, not differing from BF+Sn+RF+Sn, RF+Sn+BF+Sn and BF. Groups RF+BF and BF+RF showed highest SL, not differing from BF+Sn and BF+Sn. For enamel, the use of a mouthrinse before brushing was able to reduce erosive wear for both fluoride and stannous products. For dentin, the use of stannous-containing products, irrespective of the order of application, presented superior effects.