The tooth was then prepared for a SSC, which was fixed with glass ionomer luting cement (Hy-Bond GI CX®, Shofu, Kyoto, Japan). One paediatric dentist performed all treatment. At the 6–11 month and 12–29 month recalls, clinical and radiographic examinations were performed by another paediatric dentist who was blinded to which treatment group the teeth had been assigned. The intra-examiner reliability was 100%

and 90% for the clinical and radiographic evaluations, respectively. The criteria used for determination GSK1120212 of clinical and radiographic success were as follows: (i) absence of a fistula, swelling of the periodontal tissue, and/or abnormal tooth mobility; (ii) absence of clinical symptoms of irreversible pulpitis such as spontaneous pain or pain persisting after removal of the stimulus; (iii) an intact lamina dura and the absence of radiolucency at the bifurcation or periapical regions or thickening of HDAC inhibitor the periodontal

space which would indicate the presence of irreversible pathology or necrosis; (iv) absence of internal or external root resorption. If canal obliteration was observed, it was not regarded as a treatment failure[22]. Partial discontinuity of the lamina dura in some areas and/or thickening of the periodontal space, which could not definitively indicate the presence of irreversible pathology or necrosis, were observed at the first recall. We classified these teeth into an ‘observe’ group for further evaluation at the next recall. All of the radiographic criteria were evaluated by periapical radiograph examination. The preoperative radiographs of a mandibular first and second primary molar treated with CH-IPT and 3Mix-MP, respectively, are seen in Fig. 1a and of a CH-IPT-treated mandibular first primary molar is shown in Fig. 2a. The presence of deep carious lesions approaching the pulp, as well as intact

lamina dura can be observed, and neither internal/external resorption nor interradicular/periapical radiolucencies can be seen. Any teeth showing both clinical and radiographic success were recorded as overall treatment success. Those that showed clinical and/or radiographic signs or symptoms of irreversible pulp pathology Phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase or necrosis were recorded as overall failures. The Pearson chi- square and Fisher, s exact tests at the 95% confidence level were used to analyse the differences between the percent of overall success in both groups. At the 6–11 month recall (mean = 7.12 ±1.36 months), 76 of 82 mandibular primary molars were available for clinical and radiographic evaluation. Two of 41 teeth in the CH-IPT group (5%) and 4 of 41 teeth (10%) in the 3Mix-MP group dropped out. The distribution of teeth evaluated at 6–11 months by tooth type and treatment method is shown in Table 1. None of the teeth in either group showed clinical signs/symptoms of irreversible pulpitis or necrosis such as pain, fistula, or enhanced tooth mobility.