Does Bleach Make Extracted Teeth Brittle?

maybe the fear of them not being disinfected is greater than the need for quality.

first off, i havent had any real trouble with brittleness in my BONCOET (big ol nasty collection of extracted teeth). this may be because i tossed in some glycerin from walgreens into the jar with the bleach & water combo. try it, you may like it.

secondly, why would you care if some teeth do get a little bit brittle? copious amounts of water, sharp burs and a light touch ought to keep them from blowing up into powder the instant you lay hands on 'em. its not like you trying to squeeze them for an extraction...

Because if you didn't put them in bleach, they'd be an infection control disaster.

I dont think bleach makes them brittle. But drying definately makes them very brittle. If you let them dry out the enamel will fly off when you try cutting into them. Autoclaving also makes them brittle...

dent_student said:

I have read on this message board and have been told by a dentist that 1:10 bleach to water solution makes the extracted teeth we are supposed to collect brittle.

Why would my school tell me to put it in this if it makes them brittle? Any ideas?

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Instead of bleach, try adding a little of this to the jar. Worked wonders for me.

jerk.

Bleach makes teeth brittle and increases the likelihood of mishaps during endo excercises and exams. However it disinfects the teeth well. Here is the protocol to disinfect and at the same time preverve the exo teeth for endo purpose.

1. To desinfect the teeth, dilute house hold bleach in 1:5 (1part bleach + 4 parts water) and soak for 2-3 days.

2. Keep the teeth in a mixture of following solution: 2 parts of bleach + 3 parts of glycerin (from cvs or Walgreen) + 5 parts of water.


Cheers
BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DENTAL MEDICINE

dent_student said:

My teeth have been soaking in the bleach for awhile. Will adding glycerine now after a few weeks restore them to not being brittle?

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i doubt it'll restore them, but it may prevent increased brittleness.

I believe I posted before that I was told that the 1:10 bleach dilution treatment would make the teeth brittle...dentist told me to store them in Listerine. Not sure if this does the trick (sanitary?), but I'm trying this on some of the teeth, and bleach on the others...curious to see if it works.

while listerine has some great anti-microbial properties, it will not yield your collection of teeth sterile like a good bleach solution will. also, it may turn your collection a bit yellow, green, blue, orange, or whatever other color they make it in these days. cementum (what is left, at least) takes on the color of its surroundings pretty darn well.

i always used 1:1:1 of bleach, water and glycerine.

coral2005 said:

jerk.

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chill out. It was a joke. I'm sure we're all smart enough to know that adding culture medium to your extracted teeth would be a bad idea... or would it?

BTW, the glycerin thing is a good idea. I hadn't heard that one before.

dheav005 said:

while listerine has some great anti-microbial properties, it will not yield your collection of teeth sterile like a good bleach solution will. also, it may turn your collection a bit yellow, green, blue, orange, or whatever other color they make it in these days. cementum (what is left, at least) takes on the color of its surroundings pretty darn well.

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I used household bleach and water 1:10 in a used jar (relish, I think) and mine all turned out a nice minty green color. So I'm almost positive Listerine will cause them to turn colors. I plan on collecting more...would you guys bother to take the green ones to school?? (Hopefully this is not a bad omen)

dent_student said:

You can put them in straight bleach for just a little while to turn them white again. But not very long.

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Cool, thx for the tip.

In my endo course I was told that the main reason endo-tx teeth are more difficult to extract is because much tooth structure has been removed, and there is no "brittleness". I decided to do some googling and found an article (International Endodontic Journal, 34 120 , 120–132, 2001) which claims hypochlorite does indeed change the mechanical properties of dentin. I hope there will be studies of live patients getting green teeth soon.

I stored all my extracted teeth in bleach. I did dozens of endo in typodonts on then, including my two WREB teeth with no breakages what-so-ever, nor did any of my friends to my knowledge. They key to not having brittle teeth is to not dry them and to not instrument your canals out to a f'in 60 file. And dont lean on your lateral condensation like you are trying to push a bowling ball into a golf hole.

LarryBobDDS said:

And dont lean on your lateral condensation like you are trying to push a bowling ball into a golf hole.

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dent_student said:

Would you advise putting glycerine in with the bleach solution as some have suggested?

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I don't have experience with that personally, but it sounds like some people have done it with success. I dont really know what it could hurt if you have glycerine accessible. I just dont think its imperative to go way out of your way to get it in my experience.

LarryBobDDS said:

I don't have experience with that personally, but it sounds like some people have done it with success. I dont really know what it could hurt if you have glycerine accessible. I just dont think its imperative to go way out of your way to get it in my experience.

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Glycerine and Bleach was reccommended to DMDII students, to preserve the exo teeth for endo class, by endo faculty at BU. All my class utilitzed this protocol and the teeth were just fine. If in doubt you may want to ask an endo resident/faculty at your school.

my school used diluted formalin, no bleach... btw doesn't bleach in some instances alter the collagen in the pulp, making in vitro RCT difficult?