Cavity remaining dentin thickness and pulpal activity.

Purpose: To investigate pulpal injury by measuring odontoblast numbers, and pulp dentin repair activity by measuring reactionary dentin area, in relation to the remaining dentin thickness (RDT) of cavity preparations in 217 human teeth.

Materials And Methods: Cavities were restored with adhesive bonded composite, resin-modified glass-ionomer cement, zinc oxide-eugenol or calcium hydroxide materials. The teeth were extracted for orthodontic reasons between 20-381 days post-operatively, and odontoblast numbers and reactionary dentin area were analyzed histomorphometrically, and statistically using ANOVA.