Obturating materials in pediatric dentistry: A review

Abstract

Primary teeth should be preserved until their normal exfoliation time so as to maintain arch length and function in order to provide proper guidance for the eruption of permanent teeth, enhance esthetics and mastication, prevent aberrant tongue habits, aid in speech and prevent the psychological effects associated with tooth loss. Pulpectomy consists of removing the pulp tissue associated with micro-organisms and debris from the canal and obturating with resorbable filling material. Success rate of endodontic therapy depends on many factors like familiarity with the complexity of primary tooth canal systems, their formation and resorption pattern, obturating material as well as obturation technique used that is capable of densely filling the entire root canal system and providing a fluid tight seal from the apical segment of the canal to the cavo-surface margin in order to prevent reinfection. One of the major areas of research in pulpectomy is to discover new materials for obturation so to have the specific properties similar to teeth. This article will render the role of many important obturating materials which we use in dentistry and their advantages and disadvantages and their modifications.