Cytogenetic damage in exfoliated oral buccal cells by dental composites

To evaluate the possible geno/cytotoxic effects of dental composite materials by assessing the frequency of micronuclei formation and other nuclear abnormalities in the exfoliated buccal epithelium.

Swabs were taken from the buccal mucosa of 85 young healthy subjects. All participants had healthy dentition or dentition restored only with composite materials. Genotoxicity and cytotoxicity was assessed by micronucleus assay.

The results indicated no significant difference in number of oral mucosa cells with micronuclei in subjects with different numbers of composite restored tooth surfaces (P= 0.476). Also, the number of restored surfaces had no effect on nuclear alterations closely related to cytotoxicity, such as karyolysis (P= 0.572), karyorrehexis (P= 0.573) and picnosis (P= 0.765).

Despite doubts about the safe clinical use of resin composites, this study found no evidence that composite materials trigger long-term cytogenetic damage in the epithelial cells of buccal mucosa in humans. There is no objective and quantifiable evidence of genotoxicity induced by composite restorative materials in clinical practice.