Abstract
A total of 146 young permanent teeth of dogs were pulpotomized in groups of 6. In group I, IV and II, V, the pulp stumps were treated with 2% or 5%glutaraldehyde (GA) for 5 min. Thereafter, the pulp stumps were covered with calcium hydroxide paste in group I and II, and zinc oxide-GA paste in group IV and V. As controls, the calcium hydroxide technique was used in group III and the FG technique was used in group VI. The dogs were killed after 2,4,8 weeks and the materials were evaluated histologically.
The results may be summarized as follows:
1) Four weeks after the operation, the teeth in group I, II, III showed a dentinlike hard tissue barrier, but only one tooth in group IV, V, VI had a hard tissue barrier. It seemed that the pulp covered with the zinc oxide-GA paste made no hard tissue barrier, but the pulp covered with cal c ium hydroxide made one.
2) The pulp treated with 5% GA (group I, IV) showed more severe inflammation than those treated with 2% GA (group II, V).
3) Two weeks after the operation, the teeth in. group I demonstrated a large amount of bone-like hard tissue barrier. As compared with the teeth in group III, initiation of the forming of the dentin-like hard tissue barrie r in group I was late. However, after 8 weeks, the width of the hard tissue barrier observed in group I was larger than that in group III. The results show that GA used with calcium hydroxide may be useful as a pulp dressing.
