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Sensitivity of dentin to chemical stimuli
Author(s) -
Pashley David H.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
dental traumatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.82
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1600-9657
pISSN - 1600-4469
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-9657.1986.tb00599.x
Subject(s) - tonicity , dentin , chemistry , smear layer , calcium , dentinal tubule , dentistry , biophysics , medicine , biochemistry , biology , organic chemistry
Numerous chemical stimuli have been used to click pain from exposed dentin. Most of the effective chemicals share a common denominator; they arc all very hypertonic. Dentin surfaces covered with a smear layer are much less responsive to hypertonic solutions than dentin devoid of a smear layer. These observations support the hydrodynamic theory of dentin sensitivity. The most important variables influencing the efficacy of chemical stimuli include: ionic composition, presence or absence of calcium, sodium or potassium, pH and osmolality (tonicity). Although hypertonic solutions of sucrose or CaCl 2 can be useful qualitative stimuli, the theoretical objections to using them for quantitative evaluation of dentinal sensitivity seem to far out‐weight their advantages.