MOISTURE-CONTENT OF VITAL VS ENDODONTICALLY TREATED TEETH

The moisture content of vital and endodontically treated teeth was com pared in matched pairs of contralateral human teeth extracted for pros thodontic reasons. Samples from each tooth were weighed then placed in an oven to remove the unbound water from the dentin. Weighing was car ried out daily until a constant weight was achieved for three days. Th e moisture content was then calculated and expressed as a percentage o f the initial sample weight. It was found that vital dentin had a mois ture content of 12.35% whilst dentin from endodontically treated teeth had a moisture content of 12.10%. These results indicated that there was no significant difference in the moisture content between endodont ically treated teeth and vital teeth.