Outcomes of dental fracture injury as related to laser Doppler flow measurements of pulpal blood‐flow level

Abstract

Laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) is a non-invasive method to assess pulpal blood flow (PBF). Dental fracture injuries have been associated with significant PBF reduction The purpose of this study was: (i) to evaluate whether the severity of outcomes of dental fracture injuries may be related to LDF measurements of PBF, and (ii) to investigate whether outcomes of dental fracture injuries may predict PBF levels. The relationship between outcomes and PBF measurements was analyzed in 72 permanent maxillary incisors of 52 consecutive dental trauma patients. The diagnostic outcome group comprised 72 incisors with a type I (absence of sensitivity, periapical radiolucency, and grey discoloration of crown) (n = 42), type II (loss of sensitivity) (n = 16), or type III (loss of sensitivity, periapical radiolucency, and/or grey discoloration of crown) diagnosis. At each session, when an injured permanent maxillary incisor was recorded, a contralateral homologous tooth was used as a control. An ordinal stepwise regression was completed to assess the degree of association between PBF measurements and diagnostic outcomes. A logistic regression analysis was used to compute the odds ratios for the outcome features for incisor non-injury controls vs two outcome groups: type II (n = 16) and type III (n = 14). PBF measurements that were significantly associated with more severe outcome were PBF levels of <or=6 perfusion units (PU) (106.70 odds ratio) (P = 0.000). Significant increase in the risk of a PBF level of <or=6 PU occurred with a type III outcome (32.49 odds ratio) (P = 0.004). PBF measurements were related to the severity of adverse outcomes. Diagnoses of treatment outcomes predicted the presence of specific PBF levels.