Vitamin E: A potential preventive approach against dental erosion-an in vitro short-term erosive study

•Palm oil showed protective effect against enamel erosion as previously published.•Vitamin E presented similar anti-erosive effect to palm oil and stannous solution.•Vitamin E is probably the main component of palm oil in preventing enamel erosion.•Vitamin E can be a natural option for the development of anti-erosive products. This study evaluated the in vitro effect of different components of palm oil on enamel in a short-term erosive challenge. The acquired enamel pellicle (AEP) was previously formed in situ for 2 h. Subsequently, the bovine enamel blocks were treated in vitro according to following solutions: G1–palm oil; G2–85% tocotrienol solution; G3–oily vitamin E; G4–oily vitamin A; G5–deionized water (negative control); G6-stannous-containing solution (Elmex® Erosion Protection Dental Rinse) (positive control). After application of the treatment solutions (500 µl, 30 s), the blocks were immersed in 0.5% citric acid (pH 2.4) during 30 s (initial erosion). The response variable was the percentage of surface hardness loss. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Fisher's Test (p