Postoperative pulpal and repair responses.

Background: Each year in the United States, the success of 10 million surgically restored carious lesions depends on a favorable tertiary dentin repair response to preparation, restoration and patient factor variables. The authors investigated the relationship between these variables and dentinal response.

Methods: Standardized rectangular Class V restoration preparations were cut into the buccal dentin of intact first or second premolars of 27 patients without exposing the pulp and were restored. The patients were between 9 and 17 years of age. The treated teeth were scheduled for extraction for orthodontic reasons. After tooth extraction, the tertiary dentin was analyzed histomorphometrically.

Results: The area of tertiary reactionary dentin was found to be correlated using linear regression analysis of variance with restoration residual dentin thickness (P = .0024), age of the patient (P = .0045), restoration floor surface area (P = .0266) and restoration width (P = .0415). The authors did not find a correlation with the premolar position (P = .0594), sex of the patient (P = .650), pulpal inflammatory reaction (P = .613) or the time elapsed since surgery (P = .531). Restoration with zinc oxide eugenol was found to negatively influence tertiary dentin matrix secretion (post hoc analysis of variance, P = .030).

Conclusions: The age of a patient at treatment, the choice of restorative material and the size of the restoration preparation are all factors that can positively or negatively affect the pulpal repair response.

Clinical Implications: Age of the patient affects dentin repair capacity and may be a factor in treatment planning decisions. Minimizing the cutting of dentin, especially the width and base of the preparation, reduces the probability of recurrent pulpal complications.