Effects of Three Commonly Used Mouthwashes on Color Stability of Bleached Teeth

Background and aim: bleached teeth are susceptible to discoloration. the aim of this study was to evaluate discoloration of bleached teeth following short-term use of three mouthwashes. materials and methods: in this in-vitro experimental study, 48 extracted maxillary central incisors were selected and divided into four groups of 12. all the teeth were subjected to external bleaching with 38% hydrogen peroxide (h2o2). after bleaching, the teeth were immersed in distilled water (control group or group 1), chlorhexidine (chx; group 2), irsha (group 3) or persica (group 4) for three, seven and 14 days. the color change was assessed by a spectrophotometer at each time point and reported as δe1, δe2 and δe3. the results were analyzed by paired t-test, repeated measures anova, one-way anova and lsd test. results: different mouthwashes and immersion times caused significantly different color change in bleached teeth. after 14 days of immersion, the color change of samples in persica group had significant differences with that of other groups (p<0.001). the results of repeated measures anova was only significant for the persica group indicating significant color change over time. thus, paired t-test was applied for pairwise comparison of the time points, which revealed significant differences between δe1 and δe3 and also δe2 and δe3 (p<0.05). conclusion: persica mouthwash would cause significant discoloration in recently bleached teeth.