1. Soft Tissue Response to Desensitizer Protocol
CRA perfromed this testing on 4 volunteers.  Two patients were treated for 5 minutes and two patients were treated for 2.5 minutes.  The severity of the tissue damage and the pain experience was dependant on the application time. Clinically this time could be as long as 20 or 30 minutes which could cause even more severe reactions with soft tissues.  Dilution by saliva was also not taken into consideration with this work which may have lessened the soft tissue damage.  The protocol is as follows:
     
1.
  Take initial photo's of patient's soft tissue before application of desensitizers.
 
2.
  Place 3mm cotton pellet (Richmond Cotton Pellets) #4 into locking cotton plier jaws (Patterson Dental Supply 088-7703).
 
3.
  Dispense 2 drops of desensitizer into a sterile well (3M).
 
4.
  Using a micropipetor (Pipetman G14066C 200 ul) measure out 40 ul of desenstizer and place on the cotton pledget.
 
5.
  Apply cotton 3-4mm below gingival crest on tooth number 3.
 
6.
  Repeat this process with different desensitizers on tooth numbers: 5,12,14,19,21,28,30.
 
7.
  Randomize application sites between teeth to improve power for statistical analysis.
 
8.
  Time the application of desenstizer for 5 minutes (Cole Parmer Digital Timer).
 
9.
  Remove cotton pledget each minute of applictation time to inspect tissue damage.
 
10.
  After 5 minutes of application record visually the effect of the desensitizers.
 
11.
  Take post-op images of the tissue.
 
12.
  Have patient rank the pain for each of the sites on the tissue.
 
13.
  Recall patient at 24 hours.
 
14.
  Take 24 hour post op photo's.
 
15.
  Have patient rank the pain for each sites 24 hours after application.
 
16.
  Continue contact with patient until all tissue damage is healed.
 
17.
  Assign numeric values to pain experience by patient.
 
18.
  Perform statistical analysis using General Linear Model (GLM) and Tukey’s multiple comparison.
 

 

Previous Page

Back to main index