An evaluation of the repeatability of electric pulp sensibility tests

The accuracy, reliability and reproducibility of electric pulp tests (EPT) have been investigated but there is conflicting information about their repeatability. The aim of this study was to investigate whether EPT are repeatable over time. EPT results from 180 healthy teeth in 39 patients with 2-10 readings per tooth (total 692 readings) were analysed. Single measures intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) ranged from 0.776 to 0.845 in teeth with 2-7 repeated measures (P < 0.001), indicating good repeatability. With eight or more measures per tooth, the ICC was low, indicating poor repeatability over longer follow-up times, but only seven teeth in two subjects were included in this analysis. The Pearson correlation showed no statistically significant correlation for 2-7 readings but when all readings were included, there was a statistically significant negative correlation. Hence, EPT has good repeatability.