OBSERVATIONS ON THE PERMEABILITY OF HUMAN CALCIFIED DENTAL TISSUES TO PENICILLIN

¹ Department of Dental Pathology, The London Hospital Medical College, London, England

The literature relating to permeability of the dental tissues is briefly reviewed. Penicillin solution was placed in the pulp cavities of the roots of freshly extracted human teeth from persons of a variety of ages. In 8 cases the pulp cavities were sealed by means of wired-on rubber tubes and in 6 cases a metal clamp with rubber washers was employed as a sealing device. No penicillin was detected bacteriologically on the root surfaces after periods of up to 96 hours, but in 13 cases where areas of cementum were removed with a dental bur penicillin penetrated to the surface of the exposed dentin. Penicillin was inserted in the enlarged pulp cavities of the caries-free crowns of 33 teeth. No penicillin was detected on the outer enamel surfaces after periods up to 48 hours.

The deduction is made that when penicillin or other antibiotics are inserted in root canals therapeutically the antibiotic only penetrates to the periodontal membrane in the region of the apical canals. Under the in vitro conditions of these experiments penicillin does not pass centrifugally through the whole thickness of human enamel, but to what extent various parts of the thickness of enamel are permeable to penicillin solutions has not been determined.