There are different methods for management of dental carious lesion, these include conventional rotary caries removal, air abrasion, atraumatic restorative therapy, lasers and chemomechanical caries removal (CMCR). Mechanical caries removal technique was the standard for caries treatment. Although, this method has several disadvantages, where the non-selective dental tissues removal lead to healthy and infected dental tissues removal. The minimal intervention and awareness to patient comfort is very essential especially for the children, fearful and uncooperative patients. Chemomechanical caries removal is an alternative treatment of active caries. It involves the caries removal of only infected carious dental tissues. So, the removal of sound dental tissue is avoided, the fear and anxiety from handpiece vibration is also reduced which is more comfortable to the patients. CMCR technique acts by dissolution of the carious tissue with application of a natural or synthetic agent. CMCR agents were classified into sodium hypochlorite or enzyme-based agents. Examples of sodium hypochlorite-based agents are GK-101E, Carisolv and Cariemove; examples of enzyme-based agents are Papacarie, Carie-care, BiosolvTM and Brix 3000.
This paper reviews in brief the differences between the chemomechanical caries removal agents.