Objective: Simple and rapid relief from dentin thermal sensitivity may be advantageous in clinical practice. The purpose of this prospective double-blind randomized placebo controlled clinical trial was to evaluate the efficacy of a dentin desensitizing formulation in adults. Methods: Forty-four subjects were randomly assigned to one of two groups (treatment and control). A tooth sensitive to a gentle air blast was subjected to a thermal stimulus using a thermoelectric probe to obtain a mean of three readings as a preoperative threshold measurement. The tooth was cleaned, dried, and either the desensitizing agent (a polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate / maleic acid / glutaraldehyde aqueous solution) or the placebo was rubbed into the tooth for 10 seconds and the liquid dispersed and dried by gently blowing air onto the surface. A new mean threshold measurement was determined and defined as the immediate value. Forty of the forty-four subjects returned for 3 month and 6 month measurements. A t-test was used to look for differences in values between the desensitizing agent and the placebo for each time period with a significance level of 0.05. Results: The change in perceived temperature (^oF) stimulus and the p-value for each time period are provided in the table.

	Immediate	3 month	6 month
Desensitizer	-2.0	0.2	0.5
Placebo	1.3	1.0	1.1
p value	0.05	0.77	0.85

Conclusions: The data from this study support a significant effect of the desensitizing agent in decreasing thermal sensitivity immediately after placement. The results do not show a prolonged effect from this treatment. This study was partially funded by Ivoclar, N.A.

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