Title

Evaluate enamel surface staining due to iron supplements on primary teeth - An in vitro study

Authors

Anish Ashok Gupta¹, Rohit Sharma², Dimple Kishan Tirale³, Ramakrishna Surada⁴, Udita Samanta⁵, Ananya Bhargava⁶,* & Miral Mehta⁷

Affiliation

¹Department of Oral Pathology & Microbiology, People's Dental Academy, People's University, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India; ²Department of Dentistry, Amaltas Institute of Medical Sciences, Dewas, Madhya Pradesh, India; ³Department of Pediatric & Preventive Dentistry, Rungta College of Dental Sciences & Research, Rungta Knowledge City, Kurud Road, Kohka, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, India; ⁴Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Gitam Dental College and Hospital, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India; ⁵Department of Pediatrics and Preventive Dentistry, Divya Jyoti College of dental science and Research, Modinagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India; ⁶Department of Dentistry, Ruxmaniben deepchand gardi medical college, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India; ⁷Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Karnavati School of Dentistry, Karnavati University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Anish Ashok Gupta - E-mail: anishpooja687@yahoo.co.in
Rohit Sharma - E-mail: rohitsharma26jan@gmail.com
Dimple Kishan Tirale - E-mail: dimpletirale310@gmail.com
Ramakrishna Surada - E-mail: ashok.surada@gmail.com
Udita Samanta - E-mail: druditasamanta@gmail.com
Ananya Bhargava - E-mail: drananyaortho@gmail.com
Miral Mehta - E-mail: miral9829@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received September 1, 2025; Revised September 30, 2025; Accepted September 30, 2025, Published September 30, 2025

Abstract

Iron deficiency anemia in children is commonly managed with oral iron supplements, but liquid formulations are often associated with undesirable tooth staining. This in vitro study evaluated enamel discoloration on primary teeth after exposure to ferrous sulfate and iron polymaltose complex. Sixty extracted primary anterior teeth were divided into three groups and immersed daily for 21 days; with color change measured using a spectrophotometer and stereomicroscopy. Ferrous sulfate caused the highest degree of staining (ΔE = 12.6), followed by iron polymaltose (ΔE = 6.3), while controls showed minimal change (ΔE = 1.2). Ferrous sulfate was associated with significantly greater enamel staining, highlighting the need to prefer low-staining formulations to improve pediatric compliance and aesthetics.

Keywords

Iron supplements, enamel staining, primary teeth, ferrous sulfate, iron polymaltose complex, In vitro study

Citation

Gupta et al. Bioinformation 21(9): 2980-2983 (2025)

Edited by

Hiroj Bagde

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.