The effect of different conductive materials on response of electrical pulp test

Aim: To compare the effect of using two groups of materials (Colgate Total toothpaste, Tebodont toothpaste, Fluorine gel, Ultrasound gel and Chlorhexidine gel) which water-based gels and toothpastes as conductive materials and the effect of gender on electrical pulp testing. Importance: The effect of the conductive materials and gender is important for correct diagnosis on response of electrical pulp testing. Method: To investigate the effect of different conductive materials and gender on the response of electrical pulp test, 40 maxillary central tooth of 40 healthy volunteers (20 male and 20 female) were selected. Colgate Total, Tebodont, Fluorine gel, Ultrasound gel and Chlorjexidine gel were applied to each tooth respectively as the conductive material. The statistical evaluation was performed using the IBM SPSS Version 21.0 software, with the One-Sample Kolmogrov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney U, Friedman and Bonferroni-corrected Wilcoxon tests. Results: In terms of pulpal sensory thresholds, fluorine gel; colgate, tebodont and chlorhexidine gel (p<0.001, p<0.001 and p=0.001) had significantly lower threshold value. No significant difference was found between ultrasound gel and fluorine gel. Colgate had a significantly lower threshold than tebodont (p=0.005), but significantly higher threshold than ultrasound gel (p=0.001). No significant difference was found between Colgate and chx gel. Tebodont; compared with chx gel and ultrasound gel (p<0.001), it had significantly higher threshold value. No statistically significant difference was found between Chx gel and ultrasound gel (p=0.013). It was found that water-based gel groups had better conductivity than toothpastes and gender had no significant effect on threshold value. Key words: Electrical pulp test, pulp threshold, conductive material