Journal of Dental Research, Vol 71, 1913-1915, Copyright © 1992 by International & American Associations for Dental Research Online Journals
The vascularity of dental pulp in cats
N. Vongsavan and B. Matthews
Department of Physiology, University of Bristol, England.
The fraction of the volume of the coronal pulp of cat canines that is
occupied by blood vessels was estimated by measurement of the
cross-sectional areas of all the vessels in a complete transverse section
of the pulp from each of four teeth. The sections were taken 0.5 mm from
the pulp cornu. Overall, 14.4% of the area of the pulp was occupied by
vessels. In the core of the pulp, the average value was 42.9%, and
superficially, near the odontoblast layer, it was between 5 and 10%. The
average capillary density was 1402/mm2, which is higher than in most other
tissues. Laser Doppler flow meters can be used for recording blood flow
from the coronal pulp of intact teeth, but these instruments are linear
only if the moving blood cells occupy no more than 1% of the tissue volume.
The present results suggest that this figure is exceeded in pulp.
