MTA/FS Pulpotomy for Vital Primary Incisors: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Dental caries is the most common chronic disease in children. Caries of the primary maxillary incisors is common in young children; often necessitating either extraction or pulp therapy. The premature loss of primary maxillary incisors can adversely affect a child's dental occlusion, ability to properly size food boluses for swallowing, speech articulation, facial esthetics and psychosocial development. Pulp treatment of cariously exposed vital primary incisors may prevent premature tooth loss as well as eliminate pain. Currently, there is a paucity of outcome investigations with regard to pulp therapy in primary incisors.

Inclusion criteria

• children with one or more carious primary maxillary incisors where removal of dental caries will likely to produce a vital pulp exposure
• reside in the GTA at time of inclusion
• English-speaking

Exclusion criteria

• history of spontaneous or lingering stimulated pain, swelling, fistula or sinus tract, tenderness to percussion and pathological mobility
• incisors with preoperative radiographic evidence of periapical or periradicular radiolucency, a widened periodontal ligament space, physiological resorption, incomplete root formation, internal or external root resorption, pulp canal obliteration or pulp calcifications
• non-restorable tooth