Morphology, size distribution and elemental composition of several dental debris

Abstract We investigated morphologies, size distributions and elemental compositions of dental debris formed by cutting/grinding teeth or dental alloys. The average size of debris formed by cutting/grinding dental alloy was around 100 μm and that of teeth was 20 μm. The debris formed by grinding with diamond or carborundum point had isotropic irregular shape, while the debris formed by cutting with carbide bar had characteristic lathe-cut shape. The elemental analysis indicated that the debris formed by grinding dental alloy with carborundum point consisted of not only the particles of the alloy but also the particles of Si compounds with the size of around 10 μm. The particles of Si compounds would be formed by abrasion of the grinding instrument (carborundum, SiC). Similarly, the debris formed by grinding with diamond point also contained submicro-sized particles consisting of C compounds. The results indicate that the morphology and composition of dental debris are varied depending on the combination between the workpiece and the cutting/grinding materials and that the dental debris consist of both the workpiece and the cutting/grinding materials in some combination. In addition, some of the debris of tooth had the size less than 2 μm, which has a potential to induce inflammation. Though the inflammation can be expected at low level, it is required to investigate the details in future.