Age-related changes of pulpal blood flow in primary teeth measured by laser Doppler blood flowmetry

The purpose of the present study was to examine age-related change of the pulpal blood flow (PBF) in human primary teeth. PBF of 21 healthy upper primary central incisors in 12 children (age: 3 years 11 months-7 years 3 months) was measured by laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF). Recordings were made with and without opaque black rubber dam application. On 10 of the examined teeth, repeated measurements were made on different occasions: twice on 4 teeth (3 subjects) and 3 times on 6 teeth (3 subjects). The results obtained were as follows: 1) PBF with dam application was significantly decreased with increasing age of the subjects (P<0.05, Spearman ranks order correlation, n = 21). 2) In the repeated measurements, PBF showed a tendency of decrease with age. These results indicate that PBF in human primary incisors is reduced with age. Key words Aging, Laser Doppler, Primary tooth, Pulp, Pulpal blood flow.