Evaluation of Success Rate of Lesion Sterilization and Tissue Repair Compared to Vitapex in Pulpally Involved Primary Teeth: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Vitapex has been a popular obturating material for several decades. In recent times, lesion sterilization and tissue repair (LSTR) has shown promising results. This technique uses a mixture of 3 antibiotics for sterilization of the root canals and healing of periradicular tissues. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this systematic review was to compile all the literature comparing Vitapex and LSTR for pulpally involved primary teeth and evaluate the success rate in terms of clinical and radiographic outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This review is based on PRISMA guidelines. The electronic search on MEDLINE via PubMed database and Google scholar, cross-referencing and hand search of journals was carried out for articles from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2019. Articles only in the English language were selected. Out of the 17 articles, 3 unique articles were identified for the review, of which 2 were randomized controlled trials and 1 was a retrospective study. RESULTS: All the three articles were assessed for their quality and all had a low risk of bias. It was found that LSTR and Vitapex had a high clinical success after 12 months. The radiographic success after 6 months was high but decreased after 12 months in both the groups. CONCLUSION: There is no difference in the success rate of LSTR as compared to Vitapex for the treatment of pulpally involved primary teeth.