Tooth slice organ culture for cytotoxicity assessment of dental materials

The purpose of this work was to develop a tooth slice organ culture method to assess the response of the cells of the dental pulp to commonly used den tal materials and products. Wistar rat tooth slices were grown in culture f or two and ten days in the presence of dental materials. After culture, the tooth tissues were processed and the responses of the pulpal cells were an alysed histomorphometrically. Cytotoxic cell destruction was observed follo wing the direct application of test materials to tooth slices (n = 298) aft er 10 days in culture (MANOVA, P = 0.0001), whilst the restoration of prepa red deep dentine cavities (n = 30), with test products, did not result in a significant amount of pulpal injury (MANOVA, P = 0.287). In rank order of causing pulpal injury, the test materials from the most to the least cell d estructive, was; Salicylic acid, Calcium hydroxide, Kalzinol zinc oxide eug enol, high-mercury Amalgam, Prime & Bond, Dycal, Barium sulphate, Hypocal, Scotchbond, Calasept, Life and One-step. Tooth slice organ culture, provide d a cytotoxicity screening method for dental materials, bearing a closer ph ysiological resemblance to the clinical situation than cell culture screeni ng methods. Tooth slice culturing may have the potential to replace some ty pes of in vivo animal experimentation, as there is a clear need to reduce t his form of testing. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.