In their commentary on the paper by Holan et al.,1 Duggal and Al Ansary2 indicated that, “In addition to including teeth with pulp exposure, asymptomatic teeth with deep carious lesions were also included in the study”. This interpretation of the study is in keeping with the listing of symptomless primary molars with deep carious lesions as one of the inclusion criteria in the original paper. The inclusion criteria as listed in the article were: 1) symptomless primary molars with a deep carious lesion; 2) exposure of a vital pulp by caries; 3) no clinical or radiographic evidence of pulp degeneration, such as excessive bleeding from the root canal, internal root resorption, inter-radicular and/or periapical bone destruction, swelling or sinus tract; and 4) the possibility of proper restoration of the teeth. The authors clarified that only teeth that met all four criteria were included in the study. Thus, teeth with deep carious lesions were but without pulp exposure were not included in the study.

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