Management of open apex of non-vital teeth

Dental caries and trauma are the most common challenges to the integrity of a tooth as it matures. If this occurs prior to complete root formation and apical closure normal root development is halted. Although current treatment modalities offer high levels of success for many conditions an ideal form of therapy might consist of regenerative approaches in which diseased or necrotic pulp tissues are removed and replaced with healthy pulp tissue to revitalize teeth. Regenerative endodontic methods have the potential for regenerating both pulp and dentin tissues and therefore may offer an alternative method to save teeth that may have compromised structural integrity. However for regenerative endodontic procedures to be widely available and predictable endodontists will have to depend on tissue engineering therapies to regenerate pulp dentin tissue. The proposed therapies include stem cells growth factors and scaffolds for regeneration.