Success Rate of Formocresol Pulpotomy versus Mineral Trioxide Aggregate in Human Primary Molar Tooth

Abstract

Background: In spite of long time and broad use of formaldehyde derivates (Fixation agent) in primary tooth pulp treatment, There is some concerns about these derivates such as variability, inconsistency success rate, mutagenicity, cytotoxicity, alergenicity, and some other potential health hazards of them. Therefore other alternative pulpotomy procedures like Bioactive glass (BAG), Glutaraldehyde (2%), Hydroxyappetite (HA), Bone dried freezed (BDF), ferric sulfate (15%), laser, Electrosurgery (ES), Bone Morphogenic proteins (BMP), recombinant protein-1 (RP1), and Mineral Trioxide Aggregate (MTA) have been compared. The purpose of this clinical trial is to assess radiographic and clinical success rate of Formocresol (FC) pulpotomy in compare with MTA in human primary molar teeth. Methods: 64 molars were pulpotomized equally and randomly with mineral trioxide Aggregate and Formocresol. Prior to trial, we defined a case as failure, when one or more of the events such as external root resorption, internal root resorption, periapical and furca lucency, pain, swelling, mobility, dental abscess, or early extraction appeared. Every treated tooth was defined as successful, if any noted evident was not shown. Results: Totally, 60 teeth treatment (92.2 percent) were successful and 7.8 percent were failed. Failure and success rates for MTA group were 6.3 and 93.7 percent, respectively. Failure and success rates in FC group were 8.4 and 90.2 percent respectively. The difference between MTA and FC treatment methods was not significant (Fisher Exact test). Conclusion: Findings of this study show that mineral trioxide aggregate can be an alternative procedure for FC pulpotomy of primary tooth.
Keywords: Mineral trioxide aggregate, formocresol, pulpotomy, success and failure rate.