The dental pulp:: Inflammatory markers and vital bleaching

Purpose: To evaluate the expression of specific neuropeptides associated with inflammation, substance-P (SP) and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), after night guard vital bleaching with 10% carbamide peroxide gel. Methods: 10 patients with four caries free premolars scheduled for orthodontic extraction had these teeth bleached with 10% Opalescence as follows: tooth #28, no treatment (control); #5, 4 days of bleaching; #12, 2 weeks of bleaching; #21, 2 weeks of bleaching, followed by 2 weeks without treatment. All teeth in the four groups were extracted at the same time. Immediately after extraction the teeth were frozen at -197 degrees C in liquid nitrogen. The pulp samples were prepared for enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA) to determine the concentrations of the SP, CGRP and total protein in the pulp tissue. Results: The analysis of mean SP and mean CGRP/ng protein/ml resulted in no significant differences among the four groups. It was concluded that the study did not demonstrate an increase in the release of SP and/or CGRP during night guard vital bleaching of teeth with 10% Opalescence.