AAE and AAPD Symposium Overview: Emerging Science in Pulp Therapy-New Insights Into Dilemmas and Controversies

摘要

Evidence-based best practices are yet to be established for the management of caries-associated pulpal disease in young permanent and primary teeth. Controversies still remain among practitioners, including pediatric dentists and endodontists, as to which treatment modalities are most predictable in the contemporary practice of pulp therapy. Many clinicians still remain divided as to whether indirect pulp capping is a viable procedure in primary and young permanent teeth, or whether formocresol remains the medicament of choice for pulpotomies in primary teeth. To begin the process of establishing evidence-based best practices in pulpal therapy as well as highlight some of the future directions in pulp therapy including pulp regeneration with stem cells and root canal revascularization, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) and the American Association of Endodontists (AAE) jointly sponsored "Emerging Science in Pulp Therapy: New Insights into Dilemmas and Controversies." The symposium was held on November 2-3, 2007, in Chicago, Illinois.The convening of this pulp therapy symposium was heralded as a major event in that it was a first time conjoint symposium sponsored by these 2 national specialty organizations. The genesis of the idea for joint sponsorship was the need to examine the shared procedures performed by the 2 specialties. With specialty organizations routinely producing evidence-based practice guidelines that provide the foundation (for treatments performed, it is critical that when 2 specialties perform the same or similar treatments, their guidelines are parallel in language and in content. Without these guidelines, confusion and uncertainty will result in clinical practice when a rational treatment plan is required to manage a specific pathologic entity such as caries.