Pulpal Response to Early Dental Caries

To know how early in the caries process the pulp may be involved is of interest for the pathogenesis of dental caries and from the standpoint of treatment. So far as we know, no systematic examination has been made of the response of the pulp in early caries. In two investigations, changes in the pulp have been observed beneath fairly deep dentin caries in only a few cases.1 2 In a recent study of the effect of dental caries on the pulp, impairment of the odontoblasts and inflammation of the pulp were observed only under very deep active lesions in the dentin. ' No observations of the pulpal re-sponse under enamel caries alone were made