Dental Stem Cells for Pulp Regeneration

The management of pathological conditions of the dental pulp is mainly based on the disinfection of root canal system followed by the replacement of the infected or inflamed pulp tissues by inert materials. In immature teeth, the routine root canal treatment often limits the completion of root formation and protection against external root resorption. Hence, alternative biologically based therapies that allow dental pulp regeneration is of high interest for clinicians. Tissue engineering is a multi-disciplinary field focused on the development of materials, techniques and strategies to improve or replace damaged or lost biological functions and tissues. New and exciting perspectives for the development of approaches for the clinical management of dental pulp ere opened by proving that some types of dental stem cells, such as SHED and DPSC, can differentiate into odontoblasts in vivo. This chapter presents recent advances and promising approaches in regeneration of pulp. It also address the future challenges to overcome to make pulp regeneration available in clinic.