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Endodontic biofilm, technology and pulpal regenerative therapy: where do we go from here?
Author(s) -
Nair P. N. R.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international endodontic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.988
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1365-2591
pISSN - 0143-2885
DOI - 10.1111/iej.12287
Subject(s) - endodontic therapy , dentistry , medicine , biofilm , regenerative medicine , root canal , biology , stem cell , bacteria , genetics
In the past, scientific progress was considered as a series of steady and incremental developments taking place through the accumulation of accepted facts. This concept was then challenged by Kuhn (1962) who described an episodic model in which progress takes place in revolutionary steps when an accepted model undergoes sudden drastic changes or a paradigm shift. Microbial diseases, known under various names such as diseases of infection, infectious diseases, transmissible or communicable diseases, were considered to be caused by specific biological agents. Whilst that is true for classical infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and tetanus that are caused by single, specific aetiological agents, there are several chronic diseases that are caused by a consortium of microbial species living in an ecological habitat, known as biofilms. Apical periodontitis belongs to this group of diseases. The purpose of this editorial is to briefly but critically survey the physical and biological challenges that limit our ability to predictably cure apical periodontitis and to explore the emerging opportunities in endodontic microbiology, cell biology and new generative medicine.