Objectives: 

D-glucosamine hydrochloride (DGL) has a variety of biological activities. Although, it has been reported that DGL has a significant pain relief effect in treating osteoarthritis et al, little is known about the effect on dental pain. To evaluate the applicability of DGL as a medicament to control pain in tooth is not yet reported. In this study, using an in vitro rat mandible-inferior alveolar nerve preparation (jaw-nerve preparation), we examined the effect of DGL on nociceptive responses in the tooth pulpal nerve.

Materials: 

We evaluated the effect of DGL on nociceptive responses for twenty Male Wistar albino rats by using an in vitro jaw-nerve preparation. Bradykinin(BK) was used as a chemical nociceptive stimulant which was poured near the exposed tooth pulp. Sixty second after BK application, the surface of the exposed pulp was applied with DGL solution in the DGL group, while in the control group, with physiological saline.

Results: 

The frequency in the control group was 2.06 ± 0.21 Hz (n = 10) after 5 minutes of saline application, while that in the DGL group was 0.76 ± 0.16 Hz (n = 10) after 5 minutes of DGL application. The DGL group showed significantly lower frequency than the control groups (t-test, p<0.05).

Conclusions: 

BK-induced nociceptive responses were fairly suppressed by direct application of DGL. Our results suggest that DGL might have a pain relief effect in dental pain.