Abstract
The pulpal chamber of each tooth contains the vasculature necessary to maintain a viable tooth. A critical need exists to develop an objective, repeatable method to assess pulpal viability. We hypothesized that the existence of blood perfusion within the pulp can be determined with analysis of laser speckle imaging (LSI) patterns generated by transillumination of the tooth. We used nine extracted human cuspids and incisors. A Tygon tube was inserted into a channel created within each tooth and Intralipid pumped through the tube in a controlled manner with a syringe infusion pump. We evaluated the feasibility of LSI for flow assessment using both transillumination and epiillumination imaging configurations. With the transillumination geometry, we also assessed the effect of the angle of incidence of the probe laser light on the speckle flow index (SFI) values extracted from the collected speckle images. Transillumination LSI, and not epiillumination LSI, enables differentiation between the absence and presence of perfusion in an in vitro tooth model. SFI values are insensitive to the relative angle of incidence of the laser light, over a wide range of angles. Our preliminary in vitro data suggest that transillumination LSI is a promising method to identify the presence of blood flow in the pulpal chamber. Future in vivo evaluation is warranted.
Highlights
The pulpal chamber of each tooth contains the vasculature necessary to maintain a viable tooth
Based on our laboratory’s prior experience with laser speckle imaging (LSI) to study blood-flow dynamics in preclinical animal models [11,12] and human subjects [13,14], we investigated its efficacy in assessing fluid flow in an in vitro tooth model
speckle flow index (SFI) values are insensitive to the relative angle of incidence of the laser light, over a wide range of angles (Fig. 3)
Summary
The pulpal chamber of each tooth contains the vasculature necessary to maintain a viable tooth. The most common methods used to assess pulpal health, are hot-and-cold thermal testing and electrical stimulation of the Aδ nerve fibers [1]. These methods assess the degree of intact neural innervation in the interrogated tooth. The current inability to accurately diagnose and monitor pulpal perfusion, and its response to noxious stimuli or treatment, provides a strong incentive for clinicians to avoid the risk of attempting measures to maintain pulpal vitality by performing devitalization and root canal therapy as the treatment of choice. A critical need exists to develop an objective, repeatable method to assess pulpal viability. We hypothesized that the existence of blood perfusion within the pulp can be determined with analysis of laser speckle imaging (LSI) patterns generated by transillumination of the tooth
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