Clinical Research Directory

Patient-related criteria: Inclusion criteria: * Patients consulting in one of the outpatient clinics listed above. * Able to tolerate necessary restorative procedures. * Provide informed consent. * Accepts the 18 months follow-up period. Exclusion criteria: * Medically compromised patients, as they will not be able to attend multiple appointments or may require special management. * Pregnant women; as radiographs cannot be taken for them. * Allergy to any of the restorative materials, including anesthetics. * Uncooperative patients, will not abide by the instructions or attend the appointments. Tooth related criteria: Inclusion criteria: * Teeth with primary proximal carious lesions. * Teeth are vital according to pulp-sensitivity tests. * Well-formed and fully-erupted in normal functional occlusion with natural antagonist and adjacent teeth. Exclusion criteria: * Deciduous teeth; as the study is targeting only permanent teeth. * Teeth with previous restorations, which may add another variable to the study (type of old restorative material, extent of recurrent caries). * Spontaneous pain or prolonged pain after sensitivity tests (cold and electrical tests), which would indicate irreversible pulpal damage. * Negative sensitivity tests, periapical radiolucencies and sensitivity to axial or lateral percussion, which would indicate pulp necrosis. * Teeth presenting external or internal resorption, with adverse pulpal reactions which may affect the outcome of the study. * Teeth with cervical caries; which can't be evaluated on periapical radiographs.