Determining Pulp Vitality in Traumatized Teeth Using Doppler Ultrasound Test

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of Doppler ultrasound test for determining pulp vitality in traumatized teeth.
Methods: A database was searched for patients with histories of dental trauma between February 2012 and May 2015. Cases with follow-up records after a period of at least 1 year were included, and divided into 2 groups depending on the diagnostic methods used for determining pulp vitality during follow-ups:
Group 1, both Doppler ultrasound and electric pulp test (EPT) were used; and
Group 2, only EPT was used.
To reduce the effect of selection bias, the estimated propensity scores were used to match the cases in Group 1 with those in Group 2. After matching, chi-squared test was used to compare the number of teeth undergone root canal treatment between 2 groups. The follow-up periods until the decision for root canal treatment between 2 groups were compared using Mann-Whitney U test.

Results: A total of 246 teeth of 101 subjects were included in this study (Group 1: 69 teeth, Group 2: 177 teeth). After propensity score matching, the number of teeth undergone root canal treatment was 13 out of 69 (18.8%) in Group 1, and 24 out of 69 (34.8%) in Group 2; there was significant differences between 2 groups (P<0.05). The median follow-up period until initiating root canal treatment was 279 days (IQR=530 days) for Group 1, and 70 days (IQR=408 days) for Group 2. Although Group 1 demonstrated longer period than Group 2, it was not statistically significant (P=0.119).
Conclusions: In this study, using Doppler ultrasound test decreased the number of root canal treatment in traumatized teeth. It implies that clinicians might diagnose pulp necrosis in traumatized teeth hastily only with sensibility test, and thereby perform root canal treatment. In traumatized cases, pulp vitality should be determined more carefully with reliable diagnostic methods.