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Displacement of the contents of dentinal tubules and sensory transduction in intradental nerves of the cat

D. Andrew and B. Matthews

1. Experiments were performed on anaesthetized cats to test the hypothesis that fluid flow through dentinal tubules is part of the mechanism involved in the transduction of pain-producing stimuli in teeth.

2. In 11 animals, fluid flow through dentine and single- and multi-unit activity in intradental nerves were recorded simultaneously during the application of changes in hydrostatic pressure (-500 to +500 mmHg) to exposed dentine.

3. Seventeen A-fibres (conduction velocity (CV), 10.6-55.1 m s^-1) were isolated that were pressure sensitive. The thresholds of these units in terms of dentinal fluid flow were in the range 0.3-2.1 nl s^-1 mm^-2 during outward flow from the pulp and 2.0-3.5 nl s^-1 mm^-2 during inward flow. All the units were more sensitive to outward than inward flow. Twenty-eight units (CV, 0.6-48.8 m s^-1) were not pressure sensitive, and 12 of these had conduction velocities in the C-fibre range (< 2.5 m s^-1). The velocities of the tubular contents were calculated by estimating the number and diameters of dentinal tubules exposed. At the threshold of single-fibre responses these velocities were in the range 31.7-222.9 m s^-1 during outward flow, and 211.4-369.6 m s^-1 during inward flow.

4. Repetitive pressure stimulation of dentine resulted in a progressive reduction in the evoked discharge, which was probably due to pulp damage.

5. In seven animals, 10 single intradental nerve fibres were selected that responded to hydrostatic pressure stimuli and their responses to the application of hot, cold, osmotic, mechanical and drying stimuli to exposed dentine were investigated. With these stimuli dentinal fluid flow could not be recorded in vivo for technical reasons and was therefore recorded in vitro after completion of the electrophysiological recordings.

6. With each form of stimulus, the discharge evoked in vivo was closely related to the flow predicted from the in vitro measurements. The results were therefore consistent with the hypothesis that the stimuli act through a common transduction mechanism that involves fluid flow through dentine.

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