Bioactive materials and dental pulp

Abstract

Conservative pulp therapies are therapeutic maneuvers that allow the conservation of tooth vitality, such as indirect pulp-capping, direct pulp-capping, and pulpotomy. All these therapies aim essentially at maintaining pulp vitality and inducing formation of tertiary dentin. However, preservation of the dental pulp depends on its condition, such if this is healthy, inflamed or necrotic. Conservative therapies can be performed on tooth with reversible or irreversible pulpitis, but not in pulp with necrosis process. These characteristics are clinically evaluated. The bioactive materials for will be used in direct contact with dental pulp are basically calcium hydroxide and bioceramic materials, such as calcium silicate-base materials. This chapter discusses the response of pulp tissue caused by these materials and shows a series of studies that evaluated this response, with the aim of guiding the clinician in the choice of materials for conservative treatments of vital tooth pulp.