Vital Pulp Therapy, a highly effective treatment

A high percentage of the population decides to visit the dentist when their teeth are considerably affected by caries. In many cases, the patients opt for early extraction of teeth due to the costs of root canal therapy and posterior restoration process (1, 2). The importance of keeping the pulp-dentin complex vital, the search for alternatives to root canal therapy and the clinical application of minimally invasive dentistry have led to the increased popularity of conservative approach to pulp damage. The high success rate reported for vital pulp therapy (VPT) procedures nowadays has been a key factor in bringing a higher frequency of application of this type of therapy (3, 4). The good prognosis of these procedures has been partly achieved thanks to current treatment protocols, an understanding of the biological processes involved and the materials available for use in cases of reversible pulp disease.

A good diagnosis is the most important and complex factor when taking decisions and establishing a course of treatment. Determining the exact degree of pulp inflammation is not an easy task, given the limitations of current diagnostic tests, subjective factors inherent to the patient and the correct interpretation of the clinical information by the operator (5-7). It is well-known that, for a VPT procedure to work, the pulp inflammation should be in a reversible stage (reversible pulpitis). It is important to bear in mind that current pulp sensitivity tests are not 100% reliable (6, 8).