Comparison of the reliability of laser Doppler flowmetry,pulse oximetry and electric pulp tester in assessing the pulp vitality of human teeth

Summary This study was designed to evaluate and compare the reliability of laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF), pulse oximetry (PO) and electric pulp tester (EPT) for assessing the pulpal status as a vitality test method by calculating their sensitivity, specificity and predictive values. Data were collected from 59 pairs of maxillary anterior teeth (38 pairs of central, 21 pairs of lateral incisors) in 51 patients (range 12–18 years, mean age 14·6 ± 1·73 years, 28 women, 23 men). The teeth with complete endodontic fillings constituted the study group, and the healthy, contralateral teeth of the same patients were constituted the control group. The calculated sensitivity was 0·915 for the EPT and 0·813 for the PO. And the specificity of EPT was 0·881 and PO was 0·949. The difference between the LDF values obtained from the study, and control group was statistically significant (P = 0·0001). The findings of this study indicated that LDF can reliably discriminate the vitality of the teeth with a sensitivity and specificity of 1·0 for this sample. Laser Doppler flowmetry was found to be a more reliable and effective method than PO and EPT of assessing the pulpal status of human teeth.