BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate physiologically pulpal nerve responses and to elucidate histopathologically the pulp tissue reactions to "spot irradiation" with a pulsed Nd:YAG laser. STUDY DESIGN/MATERIALS AND METHODS: Antidromic compound action potentials and the pulpal blood flow (PBF) were recorded from the canine tooth of a sodium pentobarbitone-anesthetized cat. The laser irradiation-induced pulp tissue changes were histologically investigated. RESULTS: The coronal antidromic compound action potentials disappeared in all the teeth tested during lasing, and the time needed to erase them was significantly shortened with increases in lasing power (P < 0.05). The radicular PBF increased when spot irradiation was performed, and the coronal PBF also temporarily increased with low-powered lasing. Histologic investigation revealed that spot irradiation with the laser produced severe damage in the pulp tissue in a dose-dependent manner. CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that spot irradiation with a pulsed Nd:YAG laser risks producing nerve injury and irreversible tissue damage in the pulp with lasing for the purpose of desensitizing hypersensitive dentin.
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Tokita et al. (2000) studied this question.
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