Rodd H D, Boissonade F M
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Clinical Dentistry, University of Sheffield, UK.
J Dent Res. 2001 Jan;80(1):389-93. doi: 10.1177/00220345010800011601.
The neural status of carious teeth, particularly those associated with a painful pulpitis, is largely unknown. This study sought to determine differences in the innervation density of human primary and permanent teeth and whether caries or painful pulpitis was associated with anatomical changes in pulpal innervation. Coronal pulps were removed from 120 primary and permanent molars with a known pain history. Teeth were categorized as intact, moderately carious, or grossly carious. Using indirect immunofluorescence, we labeled sections for the general neuronal marker, protein gene product 9.5. Using image analysis, we found permanent teeth to be significantly more densely innervated than primary teeth. While there was no significant correlation with reported pain experience, neural density in both dentitions increased significantly with caries. Analysis of these data suggests that caries-induced changes in neural density may be functionally more important in the regulation of pulpal inflammation and healing than in the processing and perception of dental pain.
龋齿，尤其是那些伴有疼痛性牙髓炎的龋齿，其神经状态在很大程度上尚不明确。本研究旨在确定人类乳牙和恒牙神经支配密度的差异，以及龋齿或疼痛性牙髓炎是否与牙髓神经支配的解剖学变化有关。从120颗有已知疼痛史的乳牙和恒牙磨牙中取出冠髓。牙齿被分类为完整、中度龋或重度龋。使用间接免疫荧光法，我们用通用神经元标记物蛋白基因产物9.5标记切片。通过图像分析，我们发现恒牙的神经支配密度明显高于乳牙。虽然与报告的疼痛经历没有显著相关性，但两个牙列中的神经密度都随着龋齿的增加而显著增加。对这些数据的分析表明，龋齿引起的神经密度变化在调节牙髓炎症和愈合方面可能比在牙齿疼痛的处理和感知方面在功能上更重要。
