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.