Detection of bisphenol-A in dental materials by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

The xenoestrogenic substance bisphenol-A is widely used as a synthetic precursor of resin monomers, such as bisphenol-A diglycidyl methacrylate. Reports describing the release of bisphenol-A from polymerized resin into saliva have aroused considerable concern regarding exposure to xenoestrogen by dental treatment. The purpose of the present study was to demonstrate a reliable methodology of detecting the trace amounts of bisphenol-A in dental materials. Bisphenol-A was separable from bisphenol-A diglycidyl methacrylate, which is often employed as the principal dimethacrylate monomer, by selective extraction with a Sep-Pak C18 cartridge. Using this extraction method in combination with a gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry, we have obtained evidence that all unpolymerized materials used in this study were contaminated with bisphenol-A. Quantitative analysis using a deuterium-labeled compound as an internal standard revealed bisphenol-A contents in commercial dental materials ranging from < 1 microgram/g material to about 20 micrograms/g material. The polymerized dental materials released up to 91.4 ng bisphenol-A/g material into phosphate buffered saline during 24-h incubation. These results indicate that bisphenol-A can be released from dental materials, however the leachable amount would be less than 1/1000 of the reported dose (2 micrograms/kg body weight/day) required for xenoestrogenisity in vivo.