Introduction: The pH-cyling (pHc) is a widely used method applied by cariology researches for lesions-like caries creation. This study evaluates the methodological aspects of pHc, proposes a specific protocol to standardize this demineralization method and quantifies the demineralization yielded by this in vitro model in dentine. Materials and methods: PubMed, Scopus and WOS databases were used to select studies. Meta-analyses were performed for microtensile bond strength test (µTBS), hardness test, microradiography (MRG) and polarized light microscopy (PLM). Results and discussion: Sixty-seven references were selected for qualitative assessment and 32 for meta-analysis. Significant differences were found between sound/ untreated dentine and pH-cycled dentine in all analytical techniques. Considerable heterogeneity was showed by meta-analyses. The results for the depth of demineralization by pHc averaged between 194.95 µm and 298.17 µm for MRG and PLM, respectively. Conclusions: pHc is an effective and reproducible in vitro procedure to simulate dentine caries lesions for cariology and dental materials research.
Keywords:- Dental Caries
- dentine
- meta-analysis
- pH-cycling
- systematic review
- tooth demineralization