Current status of conservative treatment of deep carious lesions

Abstract

Traditionally, deep carious lesions are treated by removal of all carious tissue, which may lead to pulp exposure. To minimize this risk, conservative carious tissue removal techniques have been proposed, including partial removal and stepwise excavation. However, there is no consensus in the literature about which is the better technique. Thus, the aim of this article is to describe and discuss the main techniques for carious tissue removal, according to scientific evidence. It was observed that both stepwise excavation and partial carious tissue removal presented lower pulp exposure rates and higher success rates. Clinical Relevance: Clinicians must be aware that conservative carious tissue removal techniques, such as stepwise excavation and partial carious tissue removal, present lower pulp exposure rates and higher success rates than traditional methods.