A MUCOSAL IRRITANCY TEST DEVICE FOR INTRAORAL USE IN DOGS

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS INVESTIGATION was to conduct, in dogs, a B-hour acute mucosal irritation study of a new bioerodible treatment. The mai n problem was to retain the test drug in situ without extraneous irrit ation from the retention device. A buccal cup was machined from acryli c with a chamber capacity of 0.025 mi and a flange that could be ligat ed to a tooth. Ten female retired breeder beagles, 7 to 8 years old, w ith naturally occurring moderate periodontitis were examined and the u pper canine teeth scaled to remove plaque and calculus. One week later the buccal cups were placed at the gingival margin of the upper canin e teeth and fixed in place with wire ligature passing through holes in the flange and around the tooth, engaging shallow nicks made in the e namel near the gingival margin so the wire would not slide up and down . The buccal cup was further stabilized with glass ionomer cement plac ed on the crown and over the outer surface of the cup. Buccal cups wer e loaded with test, placebo, or no ointment by technicians in a scheme to which examiners were blind. Hourly examinations were made, and aft er 6 hours the cups were removed and gingival mucosa scored for irrita tion by a previously described method. All dogs tolerated the test and retained the cups for 6 hours. There was no mucosal irritation from t he empty cups. We conclude that this new device can be used successful ly for testing new agents for short-term mucosal irritancy.