Laser Doppler flowmetry in assessing the vitality of traumatised teeth
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A prospective study to assess the diagnostic accuracy of laser Doppler flowmetry in assessing pulp vitality of traumatised teeth in Paediatric patients
IRAS ID
217461
Contact name
Nahar Ghouth
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
Teeth injuries are considered one of the most challenging events that occur in dentistry, especially in children. After an injury, there is a possibility that the blood supply to the tooth may become affected and compromised leading to nerve
and blood vessels death with the tooth described as a non-vital tooth.The conventional diagnostic tools available to assess tooth nerve/blood supply are not always reliable. Child cooperation and understanding contribute greatly to this shortfall. Failure to assess the vitality of the tooth may result in pain, swelling or infection of the tooth or de-vitalising a normal tooth which may render the tooth weak for the future and possibly losing the tooth.
The laser Doppler flowmetry is a machine that has been used for several years and recently in our department. It is a non-invasive, non-painful technique and shown to be more reliable than the traditional techniques. We aim to assess if this machine can predict and assess whether the tooth is alive or dead during the follow up visits of the injury along the other conventional tests.
A cut-off ratio between an alive tooth and a dead tooth was provisionally calculated based on the previous study using the same device to be (0.70).This cut-off ratio will be used statistically in this study.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/YH/0025
Date of REC Opinion
20 Feb 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion