VASCULARITY OF THE DENTAL-PULP AFTER SEGMENTAL OSTEOTOMY IN THE CHACMA BABOON (PAPIO-URSINUS)

Objective - To assess the vascularity of the dental pulp after segment al operations with and without interpositional autogenous bone graftin g. Design - Experimental study. Setting - University Department, South Africa. Animals - 26 chacma baboons, Interventions - Maxillary and ma ndibular posterior segmental osteotomies were perfused with barium sul phate 3, 6, 12 and 18 months postoperatively. The animals were killed at 3, 6, 12 and 18 months after surgery and perfused with barium sulph ate. Barium-filled vessels were counted in histological sections from 189 control and experimental teeth. Main outcome measure - Number of b lood vessels. Results - Blood vessel counts in mandibular teeth in ost eotomy segments ranged from 6 to 1.15 compared with 2.27 to 4.58 in co ntrol teeth, while in maxillary teeth counts ranged from 0.54 to 2.22 for experimental teeth and 3.3 to 4.65 for controls. For both jaws, th e numbers of vessels in experimental teeth gradually increased between 3 and 18 months but remained less than those in control teeth. Number s of blood vessels were similar in graft and no-graft groups but both were less than half the counts in control teeth. Conclusion - Blood fl ow is present in the teeth at all times after posterior segmental oste otomy but there is a risk of ischaemia.