Prospective clinical assessment of pulp sensitivity after chin bone harvesting.

PROPOSAL: Evaluate pulp vitality of mandibular teeth after chin bone harvesting.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Thirty patients underwent chin bone harvesting and accompanied for 12 months, being submitted to testing for pulp vitality with Endo Ice refrigerant spray to produce a local temperature of -50 °C. The statistical analysis was executed with McNemar test with P value < 0.05.

RESULTS

Results show that canine teeth are most susceptible to alterations; 68.82% (181) of the teeth tested showed no loss of pulp sensitivity to cold 30 days after surgery (P < 0.05), and at the end of the study, that figure had risen to 100% (263) of all teeth included in the sample.

CONCLUSIONS

Pulp vitality testing showed that 31.18% (82) of teeth experienced some loss of sensitivity, but by 12 months after surgery, all teeth had recuperated their pulp sensitivity to cold unaided.