Pathobiochemical aspects of divers barodentalgia

Introduction. During their descent under water, divers may suffer from acute toothache attacks (barodentalgia), creating an emergency that leads to the termination of diving descent. Barodentalgia can be caused by hypoxic process in the pulp of filled teeth under increased intrapulpal pressure. Objective. To reveal the peculiarities of hypoxic processes in the pulp of filled teeth under hyperbaric exposure basing on oximetry and fluorescence change parameters. М aterials and methods. The study involved 34 male divers who underwent a dental examination at the first stage to select individuals for the second stage of the experiment. 24 subjects were selected for the second stage and evaluated for oximetric (mixed blood saturation) and fluorescent (reduced coenzyme NADH, oxidized coenzyme FAD, fluorescent oxygen consumption index — FOCI) indices of filled teeth. The evaluation was performed by optical tissue oximetry (OTO) and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) methods before and after immersion in a barocamera at pressure of 0.4 MPa while breathing air. Results. Following exposure to increased pressure of the gas medium as compared to the initial values in the filled teeth, the following phenomena were observed: decrease in pulp saturation by 33.7% (p<0.05); increase in NADH by 14.4%; decrease in FAD by 22.9%; increase in FOD by 73.4% (p<0.05). Conclusions. The revealed changes in the indicators of mixed blood saturation, NADH, FAD and FOCI confirm the presence of hypoxic process in the pulp of filled teeth under hyperbaric exposure.