Use of extracted human teeth in oral research: Ethical and legal considerations

Extracted human teeth are considered an invaluable supply of biological resources for oral research. They can be used as models to test dental equipment, evaluate biomaterials, isolate bioactive compounds, and cultivate cells. The legal and ethical frameworks controlling their collection and use are still vague and applied unevenly across countries, despite their extensive use in laboratory research. In this narrative review, the authors explored the ethical and legal issues surrounding the use of extracted human teeth in oral research by means of addressing existing legislative framework gaps and suggesting standardized procedures for their purchase and use.

This review was based on dental and medical articles published during the 21st century that were relevant to the topic and retrieved from PubMed and Google Scholar.

Although most countries classify extracted teeth as clinical waste, their use in oral research turns them into biological samples that need special ethical consideration. Subsequently, a function of research ethics committees is the establishment of rules for consent processes, privacy protection, and appropriate tissue-handling techniques.

It is necessary to preserve donor rights when promoting oral health research, set up explicit permission processes, put strong biobanking protocols into place, and ensure that the process is properly monitored.