Abstract: Whenever treating deep caries, trauma or iatrogenic incidents resulted in pulp exposure, complete pulpectomy and root canal treatment (RCT) were traditionally the advocated line of treatment. Vital pulp therapy (VPT), on the other hand, was only recommended either in treating primary dentition or under certain circumstances here the pulp vitality is necessary for a still developing tooth to continue its maturation. Similarly, in case of pulp necrosis, the regenerative approach (RE) was only tackled in case of open apices in an attempt to regain vitality and induce root completion.
Over the past two decades, with the outbreak of minimally invasive dentistry, numerous improvements including, the introduction of bioactive calcium silicates, advances in the understanding of pulp reparative processes as well as technical and biological improvements in tissue handling have led to excellent clinical outputs for both VPT and RE techniques.
Nowadays, VPT and RE being more conservative and sharing the advantage of the presence of a vital pulp tissue that has the ability to react to future insults and noxious stimuli, gained high popularity in practice with promising success rates even in mature teeth.
This lecture reviews the applications of Vital Pulp Therapy and Regenerative Endodontics in permanent teeth while addressing possible promises and challenges and exploring the odds for the survival of RCT in the near future, thus answering the clinical questions that practitioners face in their practices.
Objectives: 1. To review the applications of Vital Pulp Therapy and Regenerative Endodontics in permanent teeth
2. To address possible promises and challenges during treating a pulpally-involved tooth
3. To explore the odds for the survival of RCT in the future