The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry updated its 2024 guidelines to recommend stopping use of formocresol, ferric sulfate, and zinc oxide eugenol in baby teeth procedures. These older materials release formaldehyde and smell bad. Pediatric dentists should switch to biocompatible calcium silicate cements like MTA and Biodentine instead.
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry published a study or a paper saying, hey, back in 2017, we had these guidelines. Here it is, January of 2024. Do you know that's not very long ago? 18 months ago? They made a strong recommendation saying we don't want to use this anymore in the lab because it not only does it smell, but it's completely bad for the patient over long term. So they finally said, hey, we want to use some biocompatible materials. I mean, calcium silicate cement, that's pulp body material for baby teeth. It's called MTA or biodentine, much more biocompatible. And look at what they were getting rid of: the formocrysal, which has formaldehyde in it, ferric sulfate, and zinc oxide and eugenol.
