Periodontal healing of exarticulated monkey teeth stored in milk or saliva.

Saliva has usually been recommended as a storage medium for exarticulated teeth. Recent tissue culture studies have, however, shown that milk has a more suitable osmolality than saliva and that milk is a better storage medium for human periodontal ligament cells. In the present investigation periodontal healing of replanted monkey teeth has been studied after storage of teeth in milk or saliva before replantation. There was much less root resorption, especially inflammatory resorption, after storage in milk than in saliva. Storage of teeth in milk for 3 h before replantation resulted in the same low frequency of root resorptions as was seen after immediate replantation. There was hardly any replacement resorption (ankylosis) seen in the replanted teeth.