An evaluation of tetracycline stain removal by bleaching vital rabbit incisors

Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of bleaching tetracycline-stained teeth by measuring the loss of fluorescent intensity from teeth that were bleached. Nineteen male New Zealand white rabbits, with 58 incisors stained with oxytetracycline and 16 incisors as unstained controls, were used. Three rabbits were sacrificed to determine whether the tetracycline stain was comparable between incisors in the same jaw. Of the remaining 16 animals, 6 were bleached once and 10 were bleached twice. One maxillary and one mandibular incisor were bleached in each jaw with 30 percent hydrogen peroxide and heat for ten minutes per tooth; the other incisors were protected with a rubber dam. The animals were sacrificed 24 hours after the last bleach. The fluorescent intensity of 374 select ground sections 100 ± 5 microns thick from the incisal, middle and gingival thirds of the teeth were measured with an ultraviolet light microscope coupled to a television electronic measurement system. These measurements were statistically analyzed by t-test, and observations correlated. The dentin of tetracycline-stained maxillary incisors which were bleached twice and the dentin in the incisal one-third of the mandibular incisors which were bleached twice had a significantly (P ≤ 0.001, P ≤ 0.005) lower tetracycline fluorescent intensity than the dentin of unbleached tetracycline-stained teeth. The greatest loss of fluorescent intensity of tetracycline occurred in dentin closest to the dentino-enamel junction and varied from about 150 to 350 microns from the outer enamel surface. Clinical Kodachromes indicate that the loss of tetracycline pigment is associated with the loss of tetracycline fluorescence; The ground sections showed that the tetracycline fluorescence was never totally removed by two bleaches.