Rita Kundziņa

Abstract

Will Mineral trioxide aggregate replace calcium hydroxide in treating carious exposures in adults?

Direct pulp capping (DPC) of carious exposures remains a controversial treatment for mature teeth.  Pulp capping material calcium hydroxide (CH) was introduced almost 100 years ago. Among adult patients, DPC with CH show rather low success rate. Twenty years ago, mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) was first tested and since that several experimental studies show that it produce better dentine bridge formation than does CH. Histological studies have primarily been based  on healthy teeth, undermining the generalizability of the results to adult patients with carious exposures. A resent randomized clinical study showed that MTA is more effective than conventional CH dressing as a direct pulp capping material in molars with carious pulpal exposures in adult patients.
It also challenge the treatment of choice guidelines for carious exposures in adult molars, particularly if high-quality endodontics is not available.