Trial reportInternational dental journal2013
How much is a 'pea-sized amount'? A study of dentifrice dosing by parents in three countries.
Trial report in International dental journal, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Biomimetic hydroxyapatite and caries prevention: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Canadian journal of dental hygiene : CJDH = Journal canadien de l'hygiene dentaire : JCHD · 2021Pooled it
- Caries-preventing effect of a hydroxyapatite-toothpaste in adults: a 18-month double-blinded randomized clinical trial.Frontiers in public health · 2023Trial
- The effect of dentifrice quantity and toothbrushing behaviour on oral delivery and retention of fluoride in vivo.International dental journal · 2013Trial
- Safety-constrained evaluation of antibacterial multicomponent borate glasses.Biomaterials and biosystems · 2026Article
- Effect of fluoride toothpastes on surface roughness of nickel-titanium wires: an in vitro study.Biomaterial investigations in dentistry · 2026Article
- Fluoride-Free Toothpastes for Caries Prevention: A Systematic Review of Clinical Evidence on Active Ingredients.Clinical, cosmetic and investigational dentistry · 2026Review
- Estimation of Total Daily Fluoride Intake in Europe and Correlation to Equivalent Doses in Epidemiological Studies.Journal of applied toxicology : JAT · 2025Article
- The Remineralizing and Desensitizing Potential of Hydroxyapatite in Dentistry: A Narrative Review of Recent Clinical Evidence.Journal of functional biomaterials · 2025Review
- Knowledge and practices of Iranian students (13-16 age) regarding the use of fluoride toothpaste.BMC oral health · 2024Article
- Article
- Doses of fluoride toothpaste for children up to 24 months.BDJ open · 2024Article
- Effect of Commercial Children's Mouthrinses and Toothpastes on the Viability of Neonatal Human Melanocytes: An In Vitro Study.Dentistry journal · 2023Article
- Improving Oral Health with Fluoride-Free Calcium-Phosphate-Based Biomimetic Toothpastes: An Update of the Clinical Evidence.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Remineralization of Artificially Demineralized Human Enamel and Dentin Samples by Zinc-Carbonate Hydroxyapatite Nanocrystals.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- The environmental impact of community caries prevention - part 2: toothbrushing programmes.British dental journal · 2022Article
- Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Parents on Early Childhood Caries in Qatar-A Questionnaire Study.European journal of dentistry · 2022Article
- Title Cross-Sectional Study to Evaluate Knowledge and Attitudes on Oral Hygiene of Romanian Students.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2022Article
- Maternal report underestimates the amount of dentifrice used by children during toothbrushing: a cross-sectional study.European archives of paediatric dentistry : official journal of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry · 2019Article
- Dentifrices for children differentially affect cell viability in vitro.Clinical oral investigations · 2017Article
- Salivary-free fluoride ion concentration measured using a flow-injection analysis device and oral environment in 4-6-year-old children.Odontology · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
To provide optimal fluoride effectiveness against caries while minimising risk of negative effects from excessive ingestion from toothbrushing, the fluoride dose delivered at each occasion is critical. This is particularly important for young children, so using a 'pea-sized amount' is generally recommended. However, there appears little guidance regarding what this means in practice, although it has been indicated to be 0.25 g. This study investigated, using conventional toothpastes and toothbrushes in Germany, the USA and the UK, how much toothpaste parents dispense for their 3- to 6 year-old children, and their interpretation of a 'pea-sized' amount of toothpaste. When asked to dispense the amount they would normally for their child, the majority of parents dosed substantially more than 0.25 g; in Germany, all parents over-dispensed. The amount dispensed varied widely: those parents at the 75th centile dispensed approximately twice the amount dispensed by those at the 25th centile, irrespective of country. When asked to dispense a pea-sized amount, the mean amount dosed decreased significantly in all countries. In the USA, electric toothbrush users dispensed about 0.1 g more than manual toothbrush users. While over-dispensing of fluoride toothpaste remains a cause for concern, it may be argued that the general recommendation to use a pea-sized amount of toothpaste generally works well in practice to balance the conflicting demands of risk and benefit from toothbrushing with fluoride toothpaste in young children.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.