title: The tribulations of toothpaste trials: Unethical arginine dentifrice research.
abstract: Arginine toothpaste is being promoted as being more efficacious than conventional fluoride-only toothpaste. Recent revelations concerning the design and conduct of the clinical trials conducted on schoolchildren in China and Thailand cast serious doubt on these claims. This paper describes and analyses the ethical and design flaws affecting these studies.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Naimi-Akbar
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Astvaldsdottir
mesh_terms: D001120:Arginine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D002648:Child; D004990:Ethics, Dental; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010919:Placebos; D014100:Toothpastes; D006113:United Kingdom
chemical_list: D010919:Placebos; D014100:Toothpastes; D001120:Arginine