A group of dental schools have received nearly $2 million from the NIH to co-lead a national training center exploring whether pulpotomies could be performed more routinely in general dental practices as an alternative to root canals.
The National Dental Practice Training Center, launched Sept. 1, is a collaboration between UT San Antonio, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Rochester (N.Y.), together with the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network and Project ECHO, a virtual training and mentoring framework.
Research suggests pulpotomies may be a viable option for appropriately selected patients, but many general dentists were trained before the supporting evidence emerged, according to a Sept. 23 news release.
The center will begin by surveying dentists on barriers to adopting the procedure. It will then develop training to help dentists identify appropriate patients and perform the technique. If the team meets predefined milestones, the project will move into a funded three-year, multicenter trial.
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