Effects of diphenylhydantoin on teeth in rabbit

The drug diphenylhydantoin (DPH) is well known to affect the gingiva of humans. Among other known unwanted effects is that on calcified tissues. The initial purpose of our study was to examine the effect of chronic administration of DPH on the continuously erupting incisors of the rabbit. While studying the dentin a second investigation was undertaken when it was noticed that the pulps in DPH-treated rabbits were apparently more vascular than those in the control rabbits. After a treatment period of from 5-6.5 weeks the rabbits were killed, the jaws decalcified, sectioned and stained. The results presented here show that the animals treated with DPH developed less dentin. The pulps from the DPH-treated animals showed a greater area occupied by blood vessels. These experimental results are of interest in view of reported clinical findings that some patients treated with DPH develop smaller teeth with blunted apices. The vessel changes remain unexplained.