Biocompatibility Screening of Dental Materials Using Human Tooth Slice Culture

Objective. This study was conducted to develop a human tooth slice organ culture assay to measure the response of the cells of the dental pulp to commonly used dental materials. Background. New more clinically relevant methods to screen the biocompatibility of dental materials are needed. Methods. The following common types of dental materials; calcium hydroxide [CH] (Dycal, Dentsply, Milford, DE), composite resin [CR] (One Step, Bisco, Schaumburg, IL), zinc oxide eugenol [ZOE] (Kalzinol, Dentsply, Milford, DE) and resin-modified glass ionomer [RMGI] (Vitremer, 3M ESPE, St. Paul, MN) were aseptically packed into teflon tubing and cut into 1mm pellets. The pellets were placed in contact with third-molar human tooth slices (n=40) and submerged in culture media for 2 or 7 days. After culture, the tooth tissues were processed for histological staining and the responses of the odontoblasts were analyzed histomorphometrically. The data was analyzed with analysis of variance (P value) statistics. Results. Some pulp necrosis and a loss of odontoblast survival was observed according to the type of dental materials tested (ANOVA, P < 0.0001). From the most to the least destructive to the odontoblasts was; ZOE, CH, RMGI and CR. Conclusion. This human tooth slice organ culture screening method has the potential to be used as a rapid, inexpensive and easily-available method for measuring the biocompatibility of dental materials. Grants. This study was funded by NIH/NIDCR grant DE015573.