Biological testing of dental restorative materials in vitro--a review.

In vitro methods for the biological evaluation of dental restorative materials are discussed, with particular reference to the type of cells used, the physical state of the test material, the method of establishing cell-material contact, and the criteria of cytotoxicity. It is postulated that in vitro methods should provide a reliable assessment of the toxicity of dental restorative materials, but since the current in vitro methods do not mimic in vivo conditions sufficiently closely, the correlation between in vitro and in vivo results is at present poor. The development of in vitro methods more closely simulating in vivo circumstances is advocated.