Introduction

Dental caries has been the most prevalent disease in humans, particularly in children. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine the difference between duck eggshell’s nano-calcium carbonate (NCDe) and casein phosphopeptide-amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP-ACP) in increasing enamel re-mineralization

Material and methods

5% and 10% NCDe were obtained from 50 g of thick NCDe; then, 2.5 g were taken with 2.5 g of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and 45 ml of distilled water to obtain 5% NCDe gel. Twenty-four primary maxillary first incisor teeth were divided into four groups, i.e., (1) negative control, (2) posi­tive control (10% CPP-ACP), (3) 5% NCDe, and (4) 10% NCDe. Each tooth sample was measured for the enamel surface’s micro-hardness using Vickers hardness test. Meanwhile, the enamel surface morphology was captured by means of electron microscopy scanning with magnification of 5,000×.

Results

The average micro-hardness of the enamel in the 10% NCDe and 10% CPP-ACP groups were 343.66 HV and 305.28 HV, respectively. In addition, the 10% NCDe group showed the lowest enamel porosity with strongest positive correlation between treatments’ duration, with an increase in enamel re-mineralization. In terms of statistical data, the correlation and linearity parameters for the 10% NCDe group were .800 and 64.1%, respectively.

Conclusions

The 10% NCDe group tended to be more effective than 5% NCDe and 10 CPP-APP groups in increasing re-mineralization of tooth enamel. Therefore, it was confirmed that NCDe 10% group has met the criteria as an excellent agent to re-mineralize primary teeth enamel.