(PO111) A Dilemma in the Dental Curriculum: Obstacles and Concerns in Diagnosis and Caries Excavation

Abstract: Removal of caries is a crucial step for maintaining the health of a tooth. With the new concept of dental remineralization, clinicians face a clinical dilemma of the best way to proceed, leading to an error in their clinical decision to remove the carious tissue and perform indirect or direct pulp capping on permanent teeth. The purpose of this study was to retrospectively assess the pulp capping procedures performed at our institution and make available the information to calibrate the faculty so that the protocol for these procedures can be revised. The study included patients who were treated in the predoctoral clinics with either a direct or indirect pulp capping procedure from June 2019 to September 2023. Charts of 345 subjects were identified. Data collected encompassed patient demographics (age, sex), type of capping agent, vitality testing for diagnosis at the time of the procedure, and whether or not recall was done with radiographs. Of the 276 teeth that had an indirect pulp capping procedure, 101 teeth (36.59%) had no vitality test performed at the time of the visit. Follow-up occurred in 130 (47.20%) teeth, mostly with bitewing radiographs. Of the 69 teeth that had direct pulp capping, 30 (43.47%) were not tested, and 37 teeth (53.62%) had a follow-up done. Through our data analysis, we concluded that the protocol for these procedures should be revisited among the dental school faculty and perhaps coded and flagged by Axium so that a proper treatment approach is utilized.