Determining the Best Location for Cold Test Based on Response Time in Anterior Teeth Using Various Applicators: An in-vivo Study

Although the cold tests have been used to supplement the diagnosis over the years in clinical practice, there are no exact locations that have been cited in literature where the stimulus can generate fastest and accurate response in anterior teeth. Various authors have suggested different sites to perform a cold test however this has not been standardised thus making it the need for the study. Aim: To determine the best location to perform a cold test on anterior tooth and to compare endofrost with ice-sticks based on the response time. Setting and design: An invivo study was performed on 20 subjects in the age groups of 20-40. Methods: The labial surface of the anterior teeth were divided into three parts cervical, middle, incisal third. The cold test was performed with ice-sticks. The patients were instructed to raise a hand when they experienced a sensation and time was noted using a stopwatch. After giving a gap of 5 minutes for each teeth to recover the cold test was carried out with endofrost on the same subjects. The test was performed with both large #2 cotton tip applicators and small #4 cotton tip applicators and checked for response time following which the mean time taken to respond was calculated and ANOVA with tukeys post hoc analysis was done. Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, we can conclude that endofrost is the faster method to do a cold test when compared to ice sticks. Cervical third is the appropriate site to perform cold test with ice-sticks for anterior teeth. With endofrost middle third is the faster to perform cold test. Larger the size of cotton tip applicator faster is the response when performing the cold test. Key words: Cold test, Cotton tip applicators, Endofrost, Ice-sticks, Vitality test