Vascularity of the dental pulp after segmental osteotomy in the chacma baboon ( Papio ursinus)

Objective — To assess the vascularity of the dental pulp after segmental operations with and without interpositional autogenous bone grafting. Design — Experimental study. Setting — University Department, South Africa. Animals — 26 chacma baboons. Interventions — Maxillary and mandibular posterior segmental osteotomies were perfused with barium sulphate 3, 6, 12 and 18 months postoperatively. The animals were killed at 3, 6, 12 and 18 months after surgery and perfused with barium sulphate. Barium-filled vessels were counted in histological sections from 189 control and experimental teeth. Main outcome measure — Number of blood vessels. Results — Blood vessel counts in mandibular teeth in osteotomy segments ranged from 0 to 1.15 compared with 2.27 to 4.58 in control 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, the numbers of vessels in experimental teeth gradually increased between 3 and 18 months but remained less than those in control teeth. Numbers of blood vessels were similar in graft and no-graft groups but both were less than half the counts in control teeth. Conclusion — Blood flow is present in the teeth at all times after posterior segmental osteotomy but there is a risk of ischaemia.