A quantitative study of comparing the routine decalcification and microwave decalcification methods by using different decalcifying agents

Background: Decalcification is a process of complete removal of calcium salts from mineralized tissues. Microwave decalcification is a novel technique that can accelerate the duration of decalcification compared to the manual method, by increasing the temperature to evaluate the fastest decalcifying agents and methods (routine with Microwave decalcification) in both bone and tooth. Materials and Methods: The study group consisted of 80 hard tissues, 40 teeth and 40 pieces of 1 cm × 1 cm cut bone specimens were decalcified by both routine and microwave method using four decalcifying solutions (five bone pieces and five teeth in each agents for both routine and microwave method). The four decalcifying solutions were 8% nitric acid, 8% formic acid, 8%formal nitric acid, and 14% of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). Results: Duration of decalcifi cation of bone and tooth by both methods with 8% nitric acid took 10 days for CD and 2 days for MD respectively. Similarly for rest of the acids took more time to decalcify in CD method than MD method. Fourteen percent EDTA gave excellent results followed by 8% formal nitric acid, and 8% formic acid has good results than 8% nitric acid. Conclusion: Microwave processing proved to be an efficient and reliable procedure for the decalcification of bones and tooth. Microwave decalcification yielded quicker and better results compared to the routine methods. Therefore, microwave can serve as a quicker and reliable diagnostic method for a pathologist.