Abstract
Bone formation is essential to orthodontic tooth movement and bone is formed by collagen. To analyze the collagen maturation process on bone matrix neoformed under nonsteroidal and steroidal treatment during orthodontic tooth movement by polarized microscopy, male Wistar rats (n = 90) were randomly divided into three groups (n = 30): C (control), NSAID (potassium diclofenac) and SAID (disodic phosphate dexamethasone). The animals of the C group received 0.9% saline solution; NSAID group received 5 mg/kg potassium diclofenac (CATAFLAM®); and SAID group received 2 mg/kg phosphate dissodic dexamethasone (DEXANIL®). Animals were sacrificed 3, 7 or 14 days after the placement of orthodontic appliances and the upper first molars were processed histologically and stained with picrosirius. Bone formation was evaluated under polarized light microscopy and 4.5 Image Pro‐Plus® software calculated the percentage of immature/mature collagen present in the groups. On the third days after force application, SAID and NSAID groups showed greater proportion of immature collagen than C group. On the seventh and fourteenth days, there was a lower proportion of mature collagen only in the SAID group (P < 0.001). These data demonstrate that dexamethasone delays the collagen maturation process in established bone matrix. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.