Assesment of gingival microcirculation in anterior teeth using laser Doppler flowmetry

Introduction: Evaluating the health status of the gingival tissue represents an important objective in the daily practice. Inflammation changes the microcirculatory and micromorphological dynamics of human gingiva. Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the microcirculation in subjects with moderate gingivitis and healthy gingiva by using laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF). Material and Methods: Recordings of the gingival microcirculation (GM) were taken from 20 healthy gingival sites and from 20 sites with moderate gingivitis. The gingival blood flows in the gingivitis group before treatment was significantly different from those in the healthy gingiva group. Signals were recorded with the aid of a laser Doppler MoorLab instrument VMS-LDF2 probe VP3 10 mm S/N 2482. Three consecutive determinations of the GM were registered for each site, as follows: before the initial therapy, at 24 hours after the initial therapy and then, 7 days after the initial therapy. The data were processed using the statistical analysis software SPSS v16.0.1. Results: The results of this preliminary study showed statistically significant differences among the GM values recorded before and after the initial therapy. Conclusions: LDF could be a useful, noninvasive, sensitive, reproducible, and harmless method for measuring gingival blood flow (gingival microcirculation) in humans.