Abstract: Objective: To detect the trend of pulpal blood flow (PBF) regression after vital pulp therapy (VPT) of pulp-exposed mature permanent teeth by Laser Doppler flowmetry (LED). Methods: A total of 60 asymptomatic mature permanent teeth with deep caries or secondary caries were collected from the department of Dentistry and Endodontics, Affiliated Hospital of Youjiang Medical College for Nationalities from January 2020 to January 2021, which were randomly divided into control group and experimental group with 30 cases in each group. MTA and iRoot BP Plus were used for VPT respectively. LDF was used to record PBF values for each group of teeth before therapy and after 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. The changes of blood flow values before and after treatment in each group and the blood flow values between two groups at the same observation time point were also analyzed and compared. Results: For iRoot BP Plus group, the differences of blood flow were statistically significant between the preoperative and the postoperative 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months, respectively, and between the postoperative 3 months and 6 months (P<0.05), while the differences between any of the remaining two groups were not statistically significant (P>0.05). For MTA group, the difference of blood flow was statistically significant between the preoperative and the postoperative 1, 3, 6, and 12 months (P<0.05), respectively, and there was no statistically significant difference between any two groups at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively (P>0.05). The flow values of iRoot BP Plus at 3 months postoperatively was slightly higher than that of the MTA group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Clinically, for mature permanent teeth with caries exposure, VPT with iRoot BP Plus or MTA can achieve good clinical efficacy. After 1-year follow-up, the blood flow values of iRoot BP Plus group and MTA group can return to the normal clinical reference range, among which the blood flow of MTA group remained stable after decreasing.

Key words: laser doppler flowmetry, iRoot BP Plus, MTA, vital pulp therapy