THE QUANTITATIVE AND RADIOGRAPHIC ASSESSMENT OF RATE OF DECALCIFICATION OF TEETH BETWEEN ELECTROPHORETIC AND ROUTINE METHOD, USING WEAK AND STRONG ACIDS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY
Keywords:
7.5% Formol Nitric Acid, 10% Gooding and Stewart's Fluid, electrophoretic decalcification, graphite electrodes.Abstract
Teeth are highly calcified structure of body. The process of decalcification is routinely carried out
to study the structure of bone, teeth and other soft tissues of teeth like pulp. It is also done to evaluate the
biological response of dental pulp against restorative materials and microbial activity. Failure to decalcify
the tissue with large amounts of calcium salts will result in bad sectioning and damage to the microtome
knife. Because of the technique-sensitive procedure, decalcification of hard tissue is carried out in
different ways depending on urgency of final diagnosis. Routine decalcification of dental tissue may take
weeks to month depending upon decalcifying solution and procedure used and is represented by:
Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 +20H+ D 10Ca2+ +6H3PO4 +2H2O. Various methods have been developed to accelerate
the rate of decalcification like agitation, raise of temperature, increasing surface area and even use of
electric current. In electrophoretic decalcification electric current attracts the Ca++ ions toward cathode
and increases rate of decalcification. In the present study twenty formalin fixed teeth were used to
evaluate the rate of decalcification by electrophoretic decalcification in different acids and their effect on
staining of soft and hard tissue of teeth. Progress and end point of decalcification was confirmed by
quantitative and radiographic methods respectively. Arithmetic mean of time taken for both
decalcifications methods were calculated and then compared statistically. Then tissue were kept for
routine tissue processing and stained with hematoxylin and eosin staining protocol. In the electrophoretic
decalcification method teeth decalcified three times faster as compared to routine decalcification in both
Journal of Indo-Pacific Academy of Forensic Odontology Vol 6, No. 2, July-Dec, 2017
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acids keeping temperature of solutions within biological limits. Moreover inorganic acid decalcify teeth
faster than organic acids used in this study.