Treatment of infected dental pulps of monkeys with vancomycin and hyaluronidase

Abstract

This study was undertaken to investigate histologically the effect of a combination of an antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory enzyme when used as a medication in direct pulp therapy. The pulps of 56 teeth in two Macaca Speciosa monkeys, exposed and left open to the oral environment for 24 hours to insure contamination, received direct treatment with one of four experimental medications: (1) vancomycin, starch, and hyaluronidase; (2) vancomycin, starch, and water; (3) starch and water; and (4) starch and hyaluronidase. At 30 days the teeth were removed from one animal and at 90 days•from the other for histologic interpretation. A satisfactory response was observed in 92.9 per cent of the teeth treated with vancomycin, starch, and hyaluronidase; in 71.5 per cent of the teeth treated with vancomycin, starch, and water; and in 42.9 per cent of the teeth treated with both starch and water and starch and hyaluronidase. None of the teeth treated with vancomycin, starch, and water and vancomycin, starch, and hyaluronidase became necrotic,while 35.7 per cent of the teeth treated with starch and water or starch and hyaluronidase became necrotic. Under the conditions of this investigation, vancomycin containing pulp capping agents are effective in controlling infection and in promoting reparative dentin formation in monkeys. The benefit of hyaluronidase when used in combination with vancomycin was questionable.