[A preliminary study of laser Doppler technique in determining dental pulpal blood flow].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the possibility of using laser Doppler flowmetry to study dental pulpal blood flow.

METHODS

The pulpal blood flow of 80 healthy maxillary incisors of 20 volunteers and 15 teeth with necrotic pulp of 11 patients were determined by JI-200 Laser Doppler Flowmetry. The pulpal blood flow of 16 teeth with deep caries were measured before and after treatment.

RESULTS

There were no obvious difference of the pulpal blood flow values between the right and the left part, neither the male and the female. Maxillary central incisors had a slightly greater pulpal blood flow values than maxillary lateral incisors. The flow values from 15 teeth with necrotic pulp or pulpless teeth were significantly lower than that from the control teeth. Before therapy the values from 16 deep caries teeth were all higher than that from the control teeth. After therapy, most (15/16) of those values decreased to normal in three days. The value of one tooth with deep caries remained high, and one week later, the pulp became necrosis.

CONCLUSION

Laser Doppler flowmetry has great potentialities in the study of pulp blood flow, and deserves more concerns.