A prospective clinical study with one year follow up of deep caries management using a novel biomaterial

The objectives of this study was to check the outcome of the direct and indirect pulp capping procedure using MTA (Mineral Trioxide Aggregate) by comparing the pre-and post-operative pain by using VAS scale, associating the pre- and post- operative changes in intraoral periapical radiograph and clinical symptoms.

In this prospective clinical study 10 cases (5 for direct and 5 for indirect) with deep carious lesions (symptomatic) with no periapical changes were selected for the trial. The participants were subjected to deep caries management procedure under rubber dam where MTA is placed as pulp capping material followed by immediate restoration with sandwich technique using composite resin. The participants were followed up at recall visits of 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year intervals for clinical and radiographic evaluation.

The results of the study, analyzing the VAS, clinical symptoms and radiographic changes did not show any signs of pain, clinical and radiographic symptoms at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year intervals.

It was concluded that MTA can be used for deep caries management as a pulp capping material which being equivalent to calcium hydroxide.