Plaque
The formation of bacterial plaque on exposed dentin surfa-
ces has potential to induce pathological change in the pulpal
tissue down to patent dentin tubules due to diffusion of
bacterial products and substances release by inflammatory
processes. Adriaens [152] first published work in this field,
but more recently, Love et al. [153] has shown that bacterial
invasion of dentinal tubules commonly occurs when dentin
is exposed following a breach in the integrity of the overly-
ing enamel or cementum, with bacterial products able to
evoke inflammatory changes in the pulpodentin complex.
However, there is no link to dentin hypersensitivity yet.