Journal of Dental Medicine

Background and Aim: One of the complications following major oral surgeries is mucosal defects and delayed healing process. Up to now, various mucocutaneous grafts have been used in this field and recently, amniotic membrane has been proposed as a biological dressing in dermatologic, ophthalmologic and otolaryngologic practices. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the healing process following human amniotic membrane graft on oral keratinized mucosa of rabbit.

Materials and Methods: In this experimental animal study, two surgical mucosal defects with the same size were made in palatal mucosa of 10 rabbits with the same weight, gender and race and a graft of human amniotic membrane was used on one of the defects. On the 7th, 14th and 28th postoperative days, surgical biopsies were randomly obtained from grafted and ungrafted regions of 3, 4 and 3 rabbits, respectively and submitted for microscopic study.

Results: According to the results, grafted regions showed more surface epithelialization and thicker newly formed epithelium. Also inflammatory cells infiltration was less in these areas. In all cases, there was a remarkable cartilage formation in the connective tissue of the recipient sites.

Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that the use of amniotic membrane graft in oral surgery could be effective in healing process. Additional studies should be done using animal and human models with more samples. Furthermore, the formation of cartilage in the grafted sites and its possible potential in reconstruction of bone defects, needs to be studied.

Background and Aims: Formocresol is one of the most common pulpotomy medicaments for primary teeth. Because of its systemic and local side effects, it may be essential to use another material instead of formocresol. The aim of this study was to evaluate the histopothalogy of pulp after pulpotomy teeth with sodium hypochlorite and formocresol.

Materials and Methods: In this randomized clinical trial, 22 canine teeth that must be extracted because of orthodontic treatment were selected. The teeth were randomly divided into 2 groups (n=11) and pulpotomized with formocresol or sodium hypochlorite. These teeth were extracted after 2 months and pulpal response was evaluated according to the degree of inflammation and extent of pulpal involvement. Dentinal bridge formation was also evaluated. The data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney test.

Results: In formocresol group, mild inflammation was seen in 4 and moderate inflammation in 3 and severe inflammation in 4 cases. In sodium hypochlorite group mild inflammation was seen in 6 cases and moderate inflammation in 4 cases and severe inflammation in 1 case. Mann-Whitney test revealed that this difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). In formocresol group, necrosis was seen in 5 cases, but abscess and internal resorption were not seen in any cases. In sodium hypochlorite group, internal resorption was seen in 3 cases but necrosis and abscess were not seen in any cases.  Mann-Whitney test showed that the difference between two groups was significant in terms of necrosis (P=0.02). In sodium hypochlorite group, dentinal bridge was formed in 3 cases however, no dentinal bridge formation was seen in formocresol group. Mann-Whitney test showed that this difference was not significant statistically (P>0.05).

Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, sodium hypochlorite can be used as a pulpotomy agent in primary teeth.