In Vitro Oral Care Product Laboratory Testing

Why are in vitro oral care product testing studies important?

Oral care product testing to determine performance and efficacy can help to accelerate your dental care product development and support your marketing claims. To protect your brand and meet consumers' expectations, you will need to demonstrate that your oral care innovations perform well and that you can substantiate your marketing claims. Popular oral care product claims include whiter teeth, stain removal, stain prevention, anti-plaque, anti-calculus properties or increased tooth gloss or decreased product abrasivity. 

The oral healthcare product market is expected to grow significantly, driven by greater awareness of dental hygiene and the increasing popularity of personal aesthetics. Innovation continues to bolster this sector with the introduction of novel dental health products, and devices such as remineralising toothpaste, novel whitening treatments or electric/battery powered toothbrushes. Developing accurate, appropriate, and successful claims to describe your product and simultaneously express your brand values is more important than ever to support a successful product launch. 

 
Clinical studies for oral health care products are typically the gold standard for product assessment, however, these studies can be complex, time-consuming and expensive. Instead, a well-designed in vitro test can often yield the required data more rapidly and at a lower cost. Whether the in vitro studies are aimed at supporting early-stage oral health innovations of novel product formulations or in support of marketing claims or pack claims, laboratory testing may be rapidly conducted to generate robust data to support the screening of oral care product formulations or designs to target those most promising for your human oral care clinical studies. Data from in vitro testing can enable rigorous assessment supporting product development and advertising claims.

In Vitro Research Services for Oral Care Product Development

In vitro laboratory testing supporting claims and product development 
Our in vitro oral care laboratory team design and conduct evaluation studies for dental care products including tooth paste, toothbrushes, dentifrice products, interproximal devices, floss, mouthwashes, gels and tablets, and all novel oral care products. We support oral care innovations and product developers to accelerate their development timelines, whilst delivering data and insight on product efficacy and performance through oral care product laboratory studies. Our experts have over 20+ years of experience in supporting claim substantiation submissions. Such studies may involve routine and bespoke methodologies in the areas of stain removal, stain prevention, whitening, gloss, brushing performance, abrasivity, erosion and dentine tubule blockage.

• Anti-Stain, Stain Removal, and Tooth Whitening Product Testing
• Anti-plaque and Anti-calculus Testing
• Abrasivity / tissue loss using 2-D probe profilometry
• Artificial brushing machines for cleaning/abrasivity testing
• Cleaning evaluation of toothbrushes, interdental brushes, flosses and tapes
• Enamel erosion by acidic drinks or foods
• Impact of tooth colouration by food, drinks or pharmaceuticals
• Dentinal tubule blockage experiments for sensitivity claims
• Pellicle Cleaning Ratio (PCR) Studies
• Laboratory Remineralisation/Demineralisation Testing

Dental hard tissue preparation services
We are proficient at preparing dental hard tissue samples such as enamel blocks (human and bovine) and dentine discs. Our laboratory is equipped with a variety of wafering saws, wire saws, lapping and polishing machines enabling us to produce samples to any desired specification or finish. We can also produce artificial lesions for use in a variety of enamel remineralisation studies. 

• Human and bovine hard tissue sample preparation (enamel/dentine) including hydroxyapatite
• Supply of Discs/Blocks of dental restoration materials
• Artificial lesion preparation in enamel samples using acid gels

Bioanalytical and instrumental measurements
Our laboratories also provide sample analysis in support of your oral care clinical studies (e.g. fluoride, calcium and, other active agents) and can carry out SEM and surface microhardness analysis of in situ hard tissue samples. We are inspected and licensed by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA). Our GCP and GLP compliant bioanalytical laboratories are inspected by the MHRA.  

• Surface Microhardness (SMH) evaluation of human/bovine enamel/dentine 
• Fluoride/potassium/calcium/zinc analysis of plaque and saliva 
• Oral malodour assessment using GC / OralChroma / Halimeters
• Plaque/saliva sample preparation for active agent analysis

With over 20 years of experience designing and conducting in vitro oral care studies, we have been a trusted partner for developers and manufacturers of dental care products and oral care products. Our scientists deliver Total Quality Assurance for our customers, enabling them to power ahead safely by offering in vitro method development for bespoke models and screening of oral care products to target those most promising for further product development with rigorous assessment supporting safety, regulatory compliance, and advertising claim support.