Bromelain vs Papain Gel for Caries Removal in Primary Teeth.

The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare bromelain with papain as the chemomechanical caries removal agent in relation to their efficacy.Thirty extracted primary molars with active carious lesion extending into dentin were selected. The samples were randomly divided into groups by sectioning the samples into two halves. Group I-cavity prepared using papain gel; group II-cavity prepared using bromelain gel. Time taken for caries removal in both the groups (I and II) was recorded with the help of a stopwatch. Following caries removal, the amount of remaining demineralized dentin was measured with the help of stereomicroscope and weld check (biological image analysis) software.

t test is used to evaluate the significance of study parameters on continuous scale between two groups on metric parameters. The mean of residual carious dentin thickness obtained from the group II (bromelain) was 36.74 μm, which was much lower than that obtained from group I (papain) with a mean of 73.84 μm. The mean time taken in the group II (bromelain) was 335.30 seconds which was nearly equal to the mean time of group I (papain) of 352.33 seconds.

The amount of remaining demineralized dentin was found to be lower in bromelain group than the papain group and time taken for the carious dentin removal was almost found similar in both bromelain and papain groups. It may be concluded that bromelain was more effective in amount of caries removal than papain.

Chemomechanical caries removal with the organic gels pose a great benefit as they are less invasive and has low side effects and cost-effective. How to cite this article: Reddy VK, Nagar P, Reddy S, et al. Bromelain vs Papain Gel for Caries Removal in Primary Teeth. J Contemp Dent Pract 2019;20(11):1345-1349.