dentistry journal Commentary Potential Advantages of Peroxoborates and Their Ester Adducts Over Hydrogen Peroxide as Therapeutic Agents in Oral Healthcare Products: Chemical/Biochemical Reactivity Considerations In Vitro, Ex Vivo And In Vivo Martin Grootveld 1,2,* , Edward Lynch 1,2, Georgina Page 1, Wyman Chan 1, Benita Percival 1 , Eugenia Anagnostaki 1 , Valina Mylona 1 , Sonia Bordin-Aykroyd 1 and Kerry L. Grootveld 1 1 Leicester School of Pharmacy, De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK;
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[email protected] Received: 19 April 2020; Accepted: 4 August 2020; Published: 7 August 2020 Abstract: Peroxides present in oral healthcare products generally exert favourable protective activities against the development and progression of tooth decay, plaque, gingivitis, and halitosis, etc. However, despite the high level of research focus on hydrogen and carbamide peroxides as therapeutically active (and tooth-whitening) agents, to date the use of alternative chemical forms of peroxides such as peroxoborates for these purposes has received only scant attention. Intriguingly, peroxoborate and its esters with polyols, such as glycerol, have a very diverse chemistry/biochemistry in aqueous solution, for which there is an increasing amount of evidence that it remains distinctive from that of hydrogen peroxide; such properties include self-associative and hydrolytic equilibria, and their abilities to participate in electrophile- or nucleophile-scavenging, metal ion-complexing, redox and free radical reactions, for example.