Description

Prior to starting any endodontic treatment, it is essential to determine the vitality of the tooth in question. Vitality of a tooth is defined as the presence of blood flow into the tooth. The vitality status of a tooth will affect the success of endodontic treatment, and therefore plays an important role in treatment planning. Two established methods of determining vitality are electric pulp tests and cold tests. However, both these methods have drawbacks. Both methods use the presence of sensory feedback in the tooth as a predictor of tooth vitality. This can lead to errors because blood flow and nerves in the tooth may be lost at different times, resulting in false-positive and false-negative responses. Both are subjective and patient-dependent, relying on the patient to indicate when pain is felt. In addition, studies have suggested that electric pulp testing and cold tests are not as reliable in immature teeth, teeth undergoing orthodontic movement, traumatized teeth, and teeth with significant secondary dentin. Laser Doppler flowmetry is a technique that utilizes the Doppler principle to determine blood flow. It has been used widely in the medical field to measure blood flow in the skin. Some studies have also shown good results in measuring blood flow in the pulp of teeth. The objectives of this study are to determine the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of laser Doppler flowmetry in determining the vitality of teeth and comparing with those of electric pulp testing and cold testing.