Evaluation of Different Decalcifying Agents on Oral Hard Tissues: A Comparative Study

Moulshree Kohli; Puneet Ahuja; Amit Gupta

Evaluation of Different Decalcifying Agents on Oral Hard Tissues: A Comparative Study

Moulshree Kohli, Puneet Ahuja, Amit Gupta

Abstract

Introduction Decalcification of bone and teeth is often an essential and important step during tissue processing. The rate of decalcification and the effect of various decalcifying agents on the tissue and their staining characteristics are two important parameters influencing the selection of decalcifying solutions. Some decalcifying agents, although they completely and rapidly remove the calcium ions also adversely affect the staining characteristics and may cause damage to the organic components. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the commonly used demineralizing agents to identify the best
decalcifying agent.

Materials and Methods Three decalcifying agents namely, 10% nitric acid, 10% hydrochloric acid and 10% formic acid were used to decalcify 30 natural teeth. The endpoint of decalcification was evaluated by physical and chemical methods. The decalcified teeth were subjected to routine processing and staining with hematoxylin and eosin stains.

Result Formic acid of 10% was the most considerate to the hard tissues and 10% hydrochloric acid was the least considerate to the tooth structure.

Conclusion Formic acid of 10% though being the slowest decalcifying agent, gave excellent results for soft-tissue integrity and staining characteristics.

Keywords

10% nitric acid, 10% hydrochloric acid, 10% formic acid, decalcifying agents

Full Text:

References

Prasad P, Donoghue M. A comparative study of various decalcification techniques. Indian J Dent Res. 2013;24(3):302–8.

Callis GM, Bancroft JD. Theory and Practice of Histological Technique, 5th ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 2004, pp. 274–75.

Sanjai K, Kumarswamy J, Patil A. Evaluation and comparison of decalcification agents on the human teeth. J Oral Maxillofac Pathol. 2012;16(2):222–7.

Sangeetha R, Uma K, Chandavarkar V. Comparison of routine decalcification methods with microwave decalcification of bone and teeth. J Oral Maxillofac Pathol. 2013;17(3):386–91.

Nadaf A, Madhura S, Radhika MB. Decalcification: a simpler and better alternative. J Dent Oral Biosci. 2011;2(2):10–13.

Culling CF, Allison RT, Barr WT. Cellular Pathology Technique, 4th ed. London: Butterworths; 1984, p. 64.

Drury RAB, Wallington EA. Carletons Histological Technique, 5th ed. Oxford University. 1980; p. 200.

Lillie RD, Laskey A, Greco J, Burtner HJ, Jones P. Decalcification of bone in relation to staining and phosphatase technics. Am J Clin Pathol. 1951;21(8):711.

Morse A. Formic acid-sodium citrate decalcification and butyl alcohol dehydration of teeth and bones for sectioning in paraffin. J Dent Res. 1945; 24:143.

Miles AEW. A test for the end-point of decalcification of histological specimens. Brit Dent J. 1949;86:297–299.

Molenaar I. Decalcification of Hard Tissues. MD. Thesis, University of Utrecht; 1957.

Verdenius HH, Alma L. A quantitative study of decalcification methods in histology. J Clin Pathol. 1958;11(3):229–36.

Waerhaug J. Decalcification of bone and teeth under vacuum; a rapid method for producing hard tissue preparations. J Dent Res. 1949;28(5):525.

Pitol DL, Caetano FH, Lunardi LO. Microwave induced fast decalcification of rat bone for electron microscopic analysis: an ultrastructural and cytochemical study. Braz Dent J. 2007;

(2):153–7.

Refbacks

There are currently no refbacks.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences