In Vitro Oral Care Product Testing

Accelerate your oral care innovation with science-led in vitro testing. Our dedicated laboratories evaluate a wide range of products, such as toothpastes, mouthwashes, toothbrushes, interproximal devices, gels, strips, and tablets, for performance across key claims like stain removal, whitening, anti-plaque, gloss enhancement, abrasion, erosion, and sensitivity reduction. Gain rapid, reliable data to demonstrate product performance and streamline product development.

Supported claim areas: whitening, stain prevention, anti-plaque, abrasivity, gloss, dentinal sensitivity.
Proven in vitro methods: from artificial lesion models to RDA/REA abrasivity profiling and more
Bespoke testing: tailored protocols for brushing performance, enamel microhardness, bioanalytical assessments using SEM, ICP-OES, microhardness, and more.
Experience you can trust: with over 20 years of experience designing and conducting in vitro oral care studies, we have been a trusted partner for developers and manufacturers of dental care products and oral care products.

Quality Standards & Accreditation

• Intertek Clinical Research Services (CRS) is ISO 9001 accredited, ensuring rigorous quality management across all our studies.
• We are also licensed under the Human Tissue Act 2004 to handle and store human tissue responsibly, following both the Act and local ethical guidelines.
• By working to the spirit of Good Laboratory Practice (GLP), we deliver reliable, reproducible results built on integrity, scientific rigor, and regulatory compliance.

In Vitro Laboratory Testing Support
We support innovation for toothpastes, toothbrushes, dentifrice products, interproximal devices, floss, mouthwashes, gels and tablets, and other novel oral care products, delivering data and insight on product efficacy and performance, helping to accelerate development timelines. Our experts have over two decades of experience in supporting claim substantiation submissions with routine and bespoke methodologies across all performance claim areas:

• Anti-Stain, stain removal, and tooth whitening product tsting
• Anti-plaque and Anti-calculus Testing
• Abrasivity / tissue loss using 2-D probe profilometry
• Artificial brushing machines for cleaning/abrasivity testing
• Cleaning evaluation of toothbrushes, interdental brushes, flosses and tapes
• Tooth gloss measurement
• Enamel erosion by acidic drinks or foods
• Impact of tooth colouration by food, drinks or pharmaceuticals
• Dentinal tubule blockage experiments for sensitivity claims
• Pellicle Cleaning Ratio (PCR) Studies
• Laboratory remineralisation/demineralisation testing
  
  

Fast, science-driven in vitro testing across all oral care claim areas, delivered with scientific rigor, and more than 20 years of specialised expertise.

Opportunities for Oral Care Product Development: Rapid In Vitro Testing Approaches
Oral care product testing to determine performance and efficacy can help to accelerate your dental care product development and support your marketing claims. To protect your brand and meet consumers' expectations, you will need to demonstrate that your oral care innovations perform well and that you can substantiate your marketing claims. Popular oral care product claims include whiter teeth, stain removal, stain prevention, anti-plaque, anti-calculus properties or increased tooth gloss or decreased product abrasivity. Our in vitro oral care product testing team design and conduct evaluation studies to support innovation and accelerated speed to market for effective products that consumers love.

The oral healthcare product market is expected to grow significantly, driven by greater awareness of dental hygiene and the increasing popularity of personal aesthetics. Innovation continues to bolster this sector with the introduction of novel dental health products, and devices such as remineralising toothpaste, novel whitening treatments or electric/battery powered toothbrushes. Developing accurate, appropriate, and successful claims to describe your product and simultaneously express your brand values is more important than ever to support a successful product launch. Clinical studies for oral health care products are typically the gold standard for product assessment, however, these studies can be complex, time-consuming and expensive. Instead, a well-designed in vitro test can often yield the required data more rapidly and at a lower cost.

Whether the in vitro studies are aimed at supporting early-stage oral health innovations of novel product formulations or in support of marketing claims or pack claims, laboratory testing may be rapidly conducted to generate robust data to support the screening of oral care product formulations or designs to target those most promising for your human oral care clinical studies. Data from in vitro testing can enable rigorous assessment supporting product development and advertising claims.

Dental Hard Tissue Preparation Services
We are proficient at preparing dental hard tissue samples such as enamel blocks (human and bovine) and dentine discs. Our laboratory is equipped with a variety of wafering saws, wire saws, lapping and polishing machines enabling us to produce samples to any desired specification or finish. We can also produce artificial lesions for use in a variety of enamel remineralisation studies. 

• Human and bovine hard tissue sample preparation (enamel/dentine) including hydroxyapatite
• Supply of Discs/Blocks of dental restoration materials
• Artificial lesion preparation in enamel samples using acid gels

Bioanalytical and Instrumental Measurements
Our laboratories also provide sample analysis in support of your oral care clinical studies (e.g. fluoride, calcium and, other active agents) and can carry out SEM and surface microhardness analysis of in situ hard tissue samples. We are inspected and licensed by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA). Our GCP and GLP compliant bioanalytical laboratories are inspected by the MHRA.  

• Surface Microhardness (SMH) evaluation of human/bovine enamel/dentine 
• Fluoride/potassium/calcium/zinc analysis of plaque and saliva 
• Oral malodour assessment using GC / OralChroma / Halimeters
• Plaque/saliva sample preparation for active agent analysis

Ready to substantiate your oral care claims or quicken development timelines?
Our scientists deliver Total Quality Assurance for our customers, enabling them to power ahead safely by offering in vitro method development for bespoke models and screening of oral care products to target those most promising for further product development with rigorous assessment supporting safety, regulatory compliance, and advertising claim support.