Evaluation of Time-Dependent Temperature Changes during Different Interdental Stripping Procedures by Thermal Imaging: An In Vitro Study

Purpose: To investigate the temperature changes in pulp chamber of incisor and canine teeth during different stripping procedures with thermal imaging. Materials and Methods: Intact and freshly extracted human permanent 40 maxillary lateral incisor, 40 mandibular canine and 40 mandibular incisor teeth were selected for this study. Diamond bur, tungsten carbide bur and perforated diamond-coated disc were used for interdental stripping in high and low speed handpieces by air and water cooling. Temperature changes and cooling time of the tooth groups were recorded by a thermal imaging system. Paired t test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were performed for intragroup and intergroup comparisons of temperature changes and cooling time values. Results: Stripping procedures created a statistically significant temperature rise in all study groups (p 0.05). For maxillary lateral incisors and mandibular incisors, the greatest temperature rise was calculated during stripping with tungsten bur and perforated disk under air cooling (p 0.001), while no statistically significant difference was found between the temperature rise values of mandibular canine teeth during different stripping procedures (p = 0.053). The lowest temperature rise and cooling time values among all tooth groups were observed during stripping with diamond bur under water cooling and the longest cooling time values were detected during stripping with perforated disc under air cooling (maxillary incisor; p 0.001, mandibular incisor; p 0.05, mandibular canine; p 0.05). Conclusion: For all tooth groups, stripping with diamond bur in a high speed handpiece under water cooling produced the lowest temperature rise in the pulp chamber and the shortest cooling time values among different stripping procedures. Keywords: interproximal stripping, pulp chamber, temperature rise, cooling time, thermal imaging