Clinical and radiographic evaluation of different materials in primary molar pulpotomies: A retrospective study

Abstract

For proper primary teeth space to be secured and full function of primary dentition maintained, when there is deep caries found in primary teeth, pulpotomy has been quite a good choice among vital pulp therapies with a predictable success rate found in the past clinical trials.1 The objective of primary tooth pulpotomy which is usually composed of coronal pulp removal, dressing of medicament and final restoration for coronal seal,2,3 is to preserve vitality of pulp tissue in the roots and let the tooth exfoliate naturally. Agents were used in pulpotomy like formocresol (FC) and MTA.1,4, 5, 6 MTA is composed of tricalcium silicate, tricalcium aluminate and tricalcium oxide and silicate oxide and introduced by Torabinejad in 1993.7 MTA has many advantages such as good biocompatibility and sealing ability,8 antibacterial effect9 and low cytotoxicity. Also, MTA helps to induce hard tissue formation from pulp tissue.10,11 These above-mentioned characteristics showed that MTA is suitable for pulpotomy.9, 10, 11, 12 In the past studies the success rate between MTA and FC has been investigated, some concluded no significant differences between the two materials, whereas others found one material might be more suitable than the other for pulpotomy.5,13,14 SavDen MTA (Taipei, Taiwan), with improved handling property and shortened setting time,15,16 has been introduced as an alternative to ProRoot MTA for the resemblance of the composition and demonstrated similar characteristics to ProRoot MTA. Further clinical studies are needed for reveal the difference between SavDen MTA, ProRoot MTA and FC. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical and radiographic success rate of pulpotomy with SavDen MTA, ProRoot MTA and FC.