Treatment Responses to Tooth Whitening in Twins

• Published in: Twin research and human genetics 2014-02, Vol.17 (1), p.23-26
• Main Authors: Corby, Patricia M. A., Biesbrock, Aaron, Gerlach, Robert, Corby, Andrea L., Moreira, Alexandre, Schork, Nicholas J., Bretz, Walter A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age; Analysis of covariance; Child; Enamel; Environmental factors; Gender; Heritability; Humans; Hydrogen peroxide; Hydrogen Peroxide - therapeutic use; Image processing; Teeth; Tooth Bleaching - methods; Tooth Bleaching - psychology; Twins; Twins, Dizygotic - genetics; Twins, Dizygotic - psychology; Twins, Monozygotic - genetics; Twins, Monozygotic - psychology
• ISSN: 1832-4274; 1839-2628
• DOI: 10.1017/thg.2013.87

The aim of this study was to determine heritability estimates of treatment responses to a 10% hydrogen peroxide strip-based whitening system in twins. Eighty-five twin pairs were randomly assigned to 10% hydrogen peroxide whitening strips or placebo strips without peroxide. Both twins (monozygotic or dizygotic) received the same treatment. Maxillary teeth were treated for 30 minutes twice daily for 7 days. Efficacy was measured objectively as L* (light–dark), a* (red–green), and b* (yellow–blue) color change from digital images at baseline (∆) and day 8. Heritability estimates for tooth whitening treatment responses for changes from day 8 to baseline were obtained using variance-component methodologies. Whitening treatment responses were highly heritable (h2 = 71.0) for ∆b* and ∆a*(p < .0001), but not for ∆L* (h2 = 27.0), which was essentially modulated by environmental factors. This study has demonstrated that both genetic and environmental factors significantly contributed to seven-day whitening treatment responses achieved with 10% hydrogen peroxide strips.