Overview of current fluorine-free remineralization materials and methods as an alternative to topical fluoride: An up-to-date

Dental caries is a common public health problem around the world, and it has been aimed to solve this health problem with many different materials and methods from the past to the present. With the demineralization process occurring in the tooth’s hard tissues, mineral loss occurs and initial caries lesions and cavitations due to caries occur. On the other hand, the remineralization process can be defined as the removal of existing minerals and hard tissue loss with ions in saliva, newly developed or existing materials,s and methods. The success of fluoride in remineralization has been proven by many literature data and is accepted as the gold standard. Although the use of fluoride in preventive dentistry is the gold standard; Due to the possible side effects and the refusal of fluoride by parents and healthcare professionals, researchers have sought new remineralization materials and methods that can provide remineralization, increase the effectiveness of fluoride or be an alternative to fluoride, with the aim of reducing the fluoride concentrations used. In clinical applications, as an alternative to flora, mineral and ion technologies, sugar alcohols, plant-derived products, bioactive materials, nanotechnological products, calcium, and phosphate-derived other products contribute to the remineralization process and are among the current remineralization materials and methods. In this review, up-to-date information on fluorine-free remineralization materials, mechanisms of action, and clinical applications of new methods and technologies were examined in order to evaluate them in line with the results of scientific studies, and it was aimed to present the studies on this subject