Comparative evaluation of post-traumatic periodontal ligament cell viability using three storage media.

AIM

To evaluate the potential of milk, coconut water and buttermilk in maintaining periodontal ligament cell (PDL) viability.

METHODS

Freshly extracted premolars (55) were divided into three experimental groups each having 15 teeth and the negative and positive control groups which had 5 teeth per group. The teeth in the experimental groups were immersed in their respective storage medium for a period of 75 min before the laboratory procedures were performed. Collagenase-dispase assays were conducted and the PDL cells were stained with 0.4% Trypan blue stain, which enabled cell counting to be performed under light microscopy at 45× magnification.

RESULTS

These are presented as mean number of viable PDL cells/ml and % viable cells compared to the positive control (Group E). The statistically significant (p < 0.001) results showed that the milk group (Group A) had the maximum average number of viable PDL cells with 23,213.3 cells/ml (44.2%), followed by coconut water (Group B) which had 13,920 cells/ml (26.5%) and finally buttermilk (Group C) which had 10,566.6 cells/ml (20.1%) was the least effective. The results in this study were statistically significant (p < 0.001) when the Mann-Whitney test was used to compare distributions relative to their central tendency.

CONCLUSION

Milk was found to be an excellent transport media for an avulsed tooth followed by coconut water and buttermilk.