CONTEMPORARY TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF PULPAL BLOOD PERFUSION IN TEETH

Pulse oximetry (PO) and laser-Doppler fluxmetry (LDF) can be used for a determination of tooth vitality by measuring the pulpal blood perfusion. They offer an alternative to conventional pulpal sensibility tests, which evaluate only the pulpal sensory function. The aim of the study was to conduct vitality and sensibility tests on permanent caries-free and carious teeth with different degrees of caries progression and compare the results. In the clinical study, 230 permanent teeth from 25 adult subjects were tested with two conventional pulpal sensibility tests (electric, cold) and two novel pulpal vitality tests (PO, LDF). Carious lesions were detected and assessed using the criteria of the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS). In the further statistical analyses, pulpal oxygenation levels and LD flux values were compared between the carious and caries-free teeth. The degree of agreement between the sensibility and vitality tests was also evaluated. Both methods proved reliable for a determination of pulpal vitality with their consistent readings on the teeth. Carious teeth had significantly lower PO values than non-carious teeth (p < 0.05). The degree of agreement between the tests of vitality and sensibility was fair to poor (κk < 0.40), which confirmed the thesis that further clarification of their relations is needed. PO and LDF proved useful in the evaluation of the pulpal tissue function by enabling the assessment of pulpal blood supply.