A multicenter study of patch test reactions with dental screening series.
BACKGROUND
Dental products contain many allergens, and may cause problems both for patients undergoing dental treatment and for dental personnel because of occupational exposure. Individual patch test clinics may not study sufficient numbers of patients to collect reliable data on uncommon allergens.


OBJECTIVE
To collect information on dental allergens based on a multicenter study.


METHODS
The Finnish Contact Dermatitis Group tested more than 4,000 patients (for most allergens, 2,300 to 2,600 patients) with dental screening series. Conventional patch testing was performed. The total number and percentage of irritant (scored as irritant [IR] or doubtful [?]) and allergic (scored as +, ++, or +++) patch test reactions, respectively, were calculated, as well as the highest and lowest percentage of allergic patch test reactions recorded by the different patch test clinics. A reaction index (RI) was calculated, giving information on the irritancy of the patch test substances.


RESULTS
The most frequent allergic patch test reactions were caused by nickel (14.6%), ammoniated mercury (13%), mercury (10.3%), gold (7.7%), benzoic acid (4.3%), palladium (4.2%) and cobalt (4.1%). 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (2.8%) provoked most of the reactions caused by (meth)acrylates. Menthol, peppermint oil, ammonium tetrachloroplatinate, and amalgam alloying metals provoked no (neither allergic nor irritant) patch test reactions.


CONCLUSIONS
Patch testing with allergens in the dental screening series, including (meth)acrylates and mercury, needs to be performed to detect contact allergy to dental products.
Kanerva
L
L
Section of Dermatology, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland.
Rantanen
T
T
Aalto-Korte
K
K
Estlander
T
T
Hannuksela
M
M
Harvima
R J
RJ
Hasan
T
T
Horsmanheimo
M
M
Jolanki
R
R
Kalimo
K
K
Lahti
A
A
Lammintausta
K
K
Lauerma
A
A
Niinimäki
A
A
Turjanmaa
K
K
Vuorela
A M
AM
D000485:Allergens / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003813:Dentistry; D017449:Dermatitis, Allergic Contact / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D009783:Dermatitis, Occupational / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D010328:Patch Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies
D000485:Allergens