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.