ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Minerva Stomatologica 2001 November-December;50(11-12):361-72

Copyright © 2001 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Evaluation of the clastogenic activity of some resins used in the prosthodontic field

Gigola P., Monarca S., Feretti D., Zerbini I., D’Argenio D.

Background. Dental materials, in particular resins used in prosthetic, orthodontic, conservative and gnathological dentistry, are frequently in long-term contact with the tissues of the mouth, and the chronic exposure to these products of a significant proportion of the population means that the release of genotoxic substances by dental resins must be evaluated.
Methods. For this purpose, ten methyl metacrylate-based resins, both cold- and hot-polymerising and all of frequent use in clinical practice, were prepared following the indications in Standard UNI 9582-2 now included in Standard ISO 10993. Genotoxicity was evaluated through the ''Tradescantia/micronuclei'' test.
Results. By using the ''Tradescantia/micronuclei'' test, which detects aberrant chromosomes by detecting micronuclei in flower tetrads, nine resins were found not to the positive; one resin caused a significant increase in the frequency of micronuclei compared to negative controls.
Conclusions. The results of the ''Tradescantia/micronuclei'' test, together with the results of tests cytotoxicity and the Ames and Allium cepa tests performed in previous research, indicate a need for further analyses of these resins for dental use, through other in vivo and in vitro tests, in order to achieve certainty over the risk connected with their use in human populations.