Experimental oral foreign body reactions: Commonly employed dental materials

Foreign bodies and tissue reactions to foreign materials are commonly encountered in the oral cavity. The more common lesions include apical deposition of endodontic materials, mucosal amalgam and graphite tattoos, myospherulosis, oil granulomas, and traumatically introduced dental materials and instruments. Since many foreign materials are unidentifiable histologically, commonly used dental materials were experimentally implanted subcutaneously in rats to assess local host responses and characterize the nature of these materials microscopically. The histologic characteristics of these foreign body reactions are detailed herein. The implanted materials corresponded to reactions seen in human subjects.