Conservative treatment for deep carious lesions in primary and young permanent teeth

Abstract

The management of deeply carious lesion could be accomplished conservatively by two techniques: an indirect single-step and stepwise techniques. The former involves incomplete removal of carious dentin and then application of a well-sealed permanent restoration. While the latter involves incomplete removal of caries and then reentry after a period to remove the residual caries, after changing its environment. The aim of this article was to review the dental literature concerning the conservative methods available to treat deeply carious teeth. A literature search was done using electronic databases 'PubMed,' 'Google Scholar,' and 'Cochrane Database' for articles in English. Several keywords were used: conservative treatment, deep caries, deeply carious lesion, indirect pulp capping (IPC), and stepwise excavation. This review mentions two operative methods for conservative treatment of deeply carious lesions, namely, IPC, including criteria for case selection and success and failure of the deeply carious lesion, and an account on various used materials. Both single-step and stepwise IPC techniques could be used for managing deeply carious lesions with maintaining pulp vitality; more longitudinal studies are needed to determine which technique is preferable to be used.