Pulp Extraction
Definition
Accessing the soft tissue of the root canal (pulp) directly by cutting the tooth at the cementoenamel junction and removing the contents of the pulp cavity. Best suited to fresh or moist teeth where nucleated cells remain intact.
- Target tissue
- Soft pulp inside the tooth's root canal
- Cutting point
- Cementoenamel junction
- Best sample condition
- Fresh or moist teeth
Common questions
Why does tooth freshness matter so much for pulp extraction?+
Nucleated cells in the pulp degrade over time; fresh or moist teeth retain intact cellular material that yields higher-quality and higher-quantity DNA than dried or long-aged teeth.
What alternative exists when pulp extraction fails on a degraded tooth?+
Analysts may grind the whole tooth or crown to release DNA trapped in the surrounding dentin, a more destructive method used when the pulp tissue itself has degraded past a useful yield.
Related terms
- Cementum
- A thin, bone-like mineralised tissue that covers the external surface of the tooth root. Deposited incrementally throughout life in alternating translucent and...
- Cryogenic Grinding
- The technique of freezing a tooth sample to cryogenic temperatures (liquid nitrogen, approximately -196°C) before mechanical pulverisation. Freezing prevents frictional heat generation...
- Dentinal Tubules
- Microscopic channels running radially through dentine from the pulp cavity to the outer surface. They house odontoblast cell processes that can carry...
- Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
- DNA located in mitochondria rather than the cell nucleus. Present in hundreds to thousands of copies per cell, making it recoverable from...
- Short Tandem Repeat (STR) Profiling
- The amplification and typing of microsatellite loci where short DNA sequences are repeated a variable number of times. When applied to canine...