Study suggests dentine bonding agents provided better relief from dentine hypersensitivity than a desensitising toothpaste

Study design
Randomised, controlled, single-blind, three-arm parallel-group trial set in general dental practice with a single general dental practitioner operator/assessor.
Intervention
Seventy-five adult patients, with basic periodontal examination scores of 0 in all sextants, good oral hygiene, at least one sensitive tooth (not diagnosed as pulpitis) and willing to comply with the trial regime were entered into the trial and randomised. Seventy-two participants completed the study. The three interventions were; non-desensitising toothpaste (Colgate Cavity Protection Regular, Colgate-Palmolive, USA), desensitising toothpaste (Colgate Sensitive Fresh Stripe, Colgate-Palmolive, USA) and dentine bonding agent (Seal and Protect, Denpsly, USA). The non-desensitising toothpaste and desensitising toothpastes were provided to the subjects for use at home but dentine bonding agent was applied in the surgery.
Outcome measure
Dentinal hypersensitivity was measured using a participant completed Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) at baseline, two weeks, three months and six months. At baseline and six months a standardised air blast to the buccal cervical root stimulus was used with the VAS. At two weeks and at three months participants self-completed the VAS at home with no stimulus.
Results
Although there was a reduction in dentinal hypersensitivity over time for all three groups, dentinal hypersensitivity reduced significantly (p