Journal
BRAZILIAN ORAL RESEARCH
Volume 37, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
SOCIEDADE BRASILEIRA DE PESQUISA ODONTOLOGICA
DOI: 10.1590/1807-3107bor-2023.vol37.0020
Keywords
Dental Pulp; Immunohistochemistry; Nerve Fibers
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The diagnosis of irreversible pulpitis (IP) relies on clinical data such as patient's chief complaint, visual inspection, response to stimuli, and radiographic examination. This study aimed to characterize nerve fibers (NF) in IP using immunohistochemistry and found that IP samples had lower density of intact NF and higher density of degenerated NF compared to healthy pulps (HP) samples. There was no association between inflammatory infiltrate intensity and NF density/integrity.
The diagnosis of irreversible pulpitis (IP) depends on clinical data, especially the chief complaint of the patient, visual inspection, response to the application of stimuli, and radiographic examination. The characterization of nerve fibers (NF) in IP may contribute to better interpret painful symptoms, but has been barely explored. This study sought to characterize the density and integrity of NF in 16 samples of IP and in five healthy pulps (HP) using S-100 and PGP 9.5 markers. Immunohistochemistry was performed to determine the density/mm(2) of S-100(+) and PGP 9.5(+) in NF. The amount of degenerated NF was obtained by subtracting the total NF density from the amount of intact NF. Associations between NF density and integrity and symptomatology were calculated. All samples were positive for S-100 and PGP 9.5. Compared to HP samples (38.20/mm(2)), IP samples had a lower density of intact NF (6.24/mm(2)). A significantly higher density of degenerated NF was found in IP samples with spontaneous pain (39.59/mm(2)) compared to those with provoked pain (23.96/mm(2)) (p = 0.02). No association was observed between intensity of the inflammatory infiltrate and NF density and integrity (p > 0.05). The findings of this study suggest that pulpitis may involve different stages of degeneration and may be more advanced in cases with spontaneous pain. The symptoms reported by affected individuals do not appear to depend on the intensity of the inflammatory infiltrate, but rather on the integrity of NF.
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