Title

Comparative evaluation of step-wise caries excavation and indirect pulp capping for vitality preservation in young permanent teeth: An in vivo Study

Authors

Neetika Singh^1,*, Enna Singla¹, Charan Kamal Kaur², Salman Saleem¹, Reva Sharma¹ & Ridhi Aggarwal³

Affiliation

¹Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Bhojia Dental College and Hospital, Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, India; ²Department of Dentistry, Government Multispecialty Hospital, Chandigarh, India; ³Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Gian Sagar Dental College and Hospital, Rajpura, Patiala, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Neetika Singh - E-mail: neetika.jasrotia@gmail.com
Enna Singla - E-mail: singlaenna@gmail.com
Salman Saleem - E-mail: salman1166@gmail.com
Charan Kamal Kaur - E-mail: charank11@yahoo.co.in
Reva Sharma - E-mail: revasharma771@gmail.com
Ridhi Aggarwal - E-mail: ridhiaggarwal21@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received October 1, 2025; Revised October 31, 2025; Accepted October 31, 2025, Published October 31, 2025

Abstract

Management of deep carious lesions in young permanent teeth poses a significant clinical challenge due to the risk of pulpal exposure and subsequent loss of vitality. Therefore, this study evaluates and compares the clinical and radiographic outcomes of Step-wise Caries Excavation (SWE) versus Indirect Pulp Capping (IPC) in young permanent molars with deep carious lesions. Hence, a randomized controlled trial was conducted with 40 children aged 8-13 years, having 40 permanent molars with deep carious lesions, randomly allocated to either SWE (n=20) or IPC (n=20) groups. Clinical and radiographic evaluations were performed at baseline, 1 week, 3 months and 6 months. At 1-week follow-up, both groups showed similar success rates (95% in SWE versus 95% in IPC, p=1.000). Thus, we show that IPC is more effective than SWE in preserving pulp vitality in young permanent teeth with deep carious lesions, offering a less invasive and more economical treatment approach.

Keywords

Young permanent teeth, step-wise excavation, pulp capping

Citation

Singh et al. Bioinformation 21(10): 3893-3898 (2025)

Edited by

Vini Mehta

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.