GENOTOXICITY OF DENTAL MATERIALS

This study was performed to characterize the (possible) DNA-damaging p roperties of dental materials and to identify specific compounds that contribute to this genotoxicity. For screening, three tests that assay for different aspects of genotoxicity (i) the bacterial umu-test; (ii ) the eucaryotic DNA synthesis inhibition test; and (iii) the in vivo alkaline filter elution technique were chosen. This investigation give s several lines of evidence that most dental materials tested (14 chem ical monosubstances present in dental devices and 7 extracts of dental materials) yield 'positive' results in at least one of the genotoxici ty tests, however, with effects ranging from 'borderline' to 'strong p ositive', The extracts of the widely used dental materials Vitrebond(R ) and AH26(R) elicited clear concentration-related genotoxic responses in all test systems. On the basis of these data and public concern, m ore attention has to be given to local or systemic complications which may be associated with the use of dental materials.