Quantitative assessment of enamel remineralization after treatment with chicken eggshell powder: A scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) study

Abstract

Chicken Egg Shell contains calcium phosphate which may mimic bone composition. The aim of this study was to evaluate remineralization efficiency of Chicken Eggshell Powder (CEP) on demineralized human tooth enamel in-vitro using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDX). In this study a window of 3x3 mm on 15 extracted human teeth were prepared and demineralized for 48 hours to create artificial early carious lesions on the enamel. The teeth were assigned randomly to three study groups of 5 teeth each and the groups being artificial saliva, Casein Phosphopeptide-Amorphous Calcium Phosphate (CPP-ACP) and CEP. The samples were then subjected to 4 remineralising demineralizing cycles of 2 hours each and prepared for evaluation under SEM and EDX analysis. The obtained results were statistically analyzed using SPSS software. The statistically evaluated results revealed that the levels of calcium in the teeth treated with CEP was higher than the teeth treated with CPP-ACP but the calcium-phosphate ratio showed no significant difference. The results confirmed CEP as a potential biomaterial for remineralization of early carious lesions.