Objectives:
It has been suggested that laser pre-conditioning can produce dental anaesthesia. This study's aim was to assess the response of the dental pulp to laser pre-conditioning.
Methods:
The effects of laser pre-conditioning, sham laser (negative control) and composite curing light (positive control) on the response of the dental pulp to electric pulp testing was investigated in this double-blind cross-over trial with 6 volunteers. The Er,Cr:YSGG laser or curing light were shone on a premolar tooth in a sweeping motion for 30 seconds (in the sham treatment the laser was not activated) in blind-folded volunteers subjected to a consistent aural stimulus. Treatment method at each visit was randomised and performed by a researcher not involved in pulp testing. Teeth were pulp tested twice initially to get baseline readings, immediately following the treatment, and thereafter every 2 minutes for 10 minutes. Results were analysed using ANOVA.
Results:
The findings are shown in Table 1. There were no significant differences in pulpal response between treatments (p>0.05). Laser pre-conditioning did not affect the pulp response.
Table 1: Means ± SD of pulpal response (electric pulp tester readings) following each of the three treatments over time (10 minutes).
| Laser | Sham Laser | Curing Light | p Value |
Baseline | 36.5 ± 9.9 | 36.6 ± 8.1 | 33.5 ± 5.0 | 0.749 |
0 min | 38.7 ± 13.4 | 39 ± 6.8 | 38 ± 6.5 | 0.983 |
2 min | 41.5 ± 10.8 | 39 ± 6.5 | 36.8 ± 5.3 | 0.601 |
4 min | 39.8 ± 11.4 | 37.8 ± 6.0 | 40.5 ± 6.8 | 0.851 |
6 min | 37.8 ± 8.4 | 37.5 ± 5.6 | 39.5 ± 7.7 | 0.881 |
8 min | 40.3 ± 8.1 | 38.7 ± 5.6 | 39.8 ± 7.1 | 0.867 |
10 min | 37.7 ± 9.8 | 39.2 ± 5.4 | 38.2 ± 7.3 | 0.943 |
Conclusion:
Laser pre-conditioning did not affect pulpal response as measured by an electric pulp tester.