Teeth storage media for color studies

Abstract

All storage media used in research assays alter some of the physical and/or chemical properties of the teeth, especially tooth color. The objective was to establish which is the most appropriate medium for storing teeth for color studies based a systematized review, and to propose a specific protocol. Using as keywords ¨storage¨, ¨medium¨, ¨teeth¨, ¨color¨, ¨stability¨, ¨saliva¨, ¨formalin¨, ¨thymol¨, ¨ethanol¨ connected by AND o OR and consulting PubMed, ScienceDirect, Embase, Scopus, Scielo, Lilacs and Google Scholar databases, articles were selected to provide information on storage media with eight criteria for evaluating at three levels of high, medium and low evidence. An analysis and synthesis of the literature led to the results and the storage protocol. The search yielded eight articles, two with a high level of evidence for natural saliva and / or artificial saliva without carboxymethylcellulose. Three with a medium level of evidence for 0.1% thymol, 0.5% chloramine T, 2% glutaraldehyde and 10% formalin. Three with low evidence level for ethanol, ethylene oxide or potassium hydroxide. Storage medium most indicate is human saliva, followed by synthetic saliva without carboxymethylcellulose and so a storage protocol was established.