A method of determining the occlusive performance of a dentifrice composition comprising: a) providing an image of a dentin surface comprising dentin tubules, the intertubule space, and surface imperfections residing in the intertubule spaces, wherein the image comprises pixels; wherein the distribution of pixel intensity of the image falls into two distributions, one representing the majority of pixel intensity distribution (major category), and the other representing the minor pixel intensity distribution (minor category); and wherein the major category represents intertubule spaces on the dentin surface and the minor category represents the dentin tubules and irregular dentin surface imperfections residing in the intertubule space; b) binarizing the image by selecting a threshold light intensity value above the minor category and below the major category to obtain a first data set at or below the threshold light intensity and a second data set above the threshold light intensity; c) grouping the adjacent pixels associated in the minor category by using a fill function to create one individual measured particle for each group of adjacent pixels to separate pixels associated from the dentin tubules from those associated with irregular dentin surface imperfections and random noise; and d) obtaining a third data set representing the dentin tubules on the dentin surface by creating a threshold based on a particle parameter, wherein particles below the particle parameter threshold, which include particles from irregular dentin surface imperfections and random noise, are filtered from the image, and e) quantifying dentin tubule occlusion before and after application of the dentifrice composition to the surface of a tooth comprising dentin, or a portion thereof wherein the dentin tubule occlusion is quantified by determining one or more parameters selected from: the total number of open tubules, the percentage of the total image area covered by open tubules, the number of open tubules per unit surface area of the image, the average tubule diameter, the average tubule radius, and the average tubule circumference. a) providing an image of a dentin surface comprising dentin tubules, the intertubule space, and surface imperfections residing in the intertubule spaces, wherein the image comprises pixels; wherein the distribution of pixel intensity of the image falls into two distributions, one representing the majority of pixel intensity distribution (major category), and the other representing the minor pixel intensity distribution (minor category); and wherein the major category represents intertubule spaces on the dentin surface and the minor category represents the dentin tubules and irregular dentin surface imperfections residing in the intertubule space; b) binarizing the image by selecting a threshold light intensity value above the minor category and below the major category to obtain a first data set at or below the threshold light intensity and a second data set above the threshold light intensity; c) grouping the adjacent pixels associated in the minor category by using a fill function to create one individual measured particle for each group of adjacent pixels to separate pixels associated from the dentin tubules from those associated with irregular dentin surface imperfections and random noise; and d) obtaining a third data set representing the dentin tubules on the dentin surface by creating a threshold based on a particle parameter, wherein particles below the particle parameter threshold, which include particles from irregular dentin surface imperfections and random noise, are filtered from the image, and e) quantifying dentin tubule occlusion before and after application of the dentifrice composition to the surface of a tooth comprising dentin, or a portion thereof wherein the dentin tubule occlusion is quantified by determining one or more parameters selected from: the total number of open tubules, the percentage of the total image area covered by open tubules, the number of open tubules per unit surface area of the image, the average tubule diameter, the average tubule radius, and the average tubule circumference.