Self Limiting Therapy in Deep Dentinal Lesions

The series of studies described in this thesis were primarily designed to expose the complex environment of deep dentinal lesions. The therapeutic end point dilemma during deep dentinal lesions excavation, the high rate of restorative regimes failure, the technological advancement in dental materials and the need for more scientific information that could guide the clinician to optimize his restorative therapies outcomes when operating in carious dentin were the main ideas behind this work. The concept of self-limiting caries therapy aims to keep the demineralized and to remove the denaturated dentin tissue. Therefore, we investigated the individual capabilities of enzymes and proteases in removal of denaturated and/or demineralized dentin prior to restoration placement. Remineralization phenomenon with and without the enzymatic solutions with different fluoride concentrations were also studied. The lactic acid proved to be effective to investigate self-limeted enzyme based experiments. The enzyme pepsin showed to be more aggressive than the enzyme trypsin and less aggressive than the collagenase and NaOCl in digesting the disintegrated organic dentin tissue.