Impact of Oxford vaccine during pregnancy on tooth germ development and hard tissue thickness in the albino rats offspring

Introduction: Teeth development and eruption are complicated eventsembracing plenty of structures and signaling pathways. Severe acute respiratorysyndrome coronavirus-2 is the causative agent of coronavirus infectious disease-2019(COVID-19). Pregnant females infected with COVID-19 have disturbances in theinflammatory reaction that would lead to a severe disease; therefore, their vaccinationis obligatory. Materials and Methods: Pregnant female rats were equally distributedinto two groups: Control group received saline and treated group received COVID-19vaccine. At the proposed time, pups were euthanized, and the mandible of each pup wasdissected for histological examination. Histomorphometric examination was performedfor the thickness of enamel and dentin of the lower first molar on the 9th and 14thpostnatal days. Results: Developmental stages of the lower first molar tooth germ inboth groups were nearly comparable with no histological differences. Enamel thicknessincreased in a non-statistically significant manner in the treated group (P-value ≥ 0.05)while dentin thickness increased in a statistically significant manner in the treated groupat the same time points (P-value ≤ 0.05). Conclusion: Vaccination of pregnant mothersdid not influence the development of lower first molar tooth germ in the offspring.However, hard tissue thickness may be affected by vaccination.