Evaluation of postmortem histopathological changes in dental pulp of rats after drowning in water

The aim of our study was to demonstrate the histopathological changes in the dental pulp of rats drowned in water. In our study, 48 rats (eight rats per group) were used. Death of the rats in the control group was induced with high-dose anesthesia. The remaining groups, except for the control group, were placed in containers filled with water after dissociative anesthesia. Rats that died due to drowning were dissected after 0, 6, 12, 18, and 24 h. In all groups, samples taken from both lung tissues were stained with H&E and analyzed for findings supporting drowning. After decalcification, molar tooth samples of the rats were stained with H&E and examined under a light microscope. Pulpal stromal edema, cytoplasmic enlargement, vascular enlargement, perivascular edema, and separation of the odontoblast cell group from the dentin layer were evaluated using four grades. Chi-Square test was used for comparison between groups. P was set than 0.05. In our study, statistically significant differences were found between the control group and Group 2 (PM 0th hour) for some of the evaluated parameters. Statistically significant parameters were observed between Group 2 and some groups maintained in water at different time intervals. It is seen that the changes in the dental pulp are promising to support the diagnosis of drowning. It is thought that this will be useful to support other studies to be conducted in the future.