**5. Conclusions**

To conclude, within the limitations of the present work, this prospective non-randomized study tends to support that pulpotomy is an acceptable and more conservative permanent treatment option for irreversible pulpitis in mature molars. Additionally, re-intervention with the gold standard procedure remains possible in case of failure. Hence, despite its non-randomized design and relatively low sample size, the present work adds to the existing literature to support the fact that pulpotomy as permanent treatment could be considered as first line treatment. The latter could be applied by a larger population of dentists, provided that strict inclusion/exclusion criteria and a rigorous clinical protocol are respected. Ideally, the present findings should be confirmed by a multi-centric practice-based study with larger sample size.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https: //www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/jcm11030787/s1, Figure S1: Practitioner and patient pain scales; Table S1: Detailed follow-up evaluation for each patient in test group; Table S2. Detailed follow-up evaluation for each patient in control group.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, J.B., H.M.S. and J.G.L.; Methodology, J.B., H.M.S. and J.G.L.; Software, J.B., H.M.S. and J.G.L.; Validation, J.B. and J.G.L.; Formal Analysis, J.B., J.-P.V.N. and J.G.L.; Investigation, J.B., C.D., P.C., S.A., J.-P.V.N. and J.G.L.; Resources, J.B. and J.G.L.; Data Curation, J.B. and J.G.L.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, J.B. and J.G.L.; Writing—Review & Editing, J.B., H.M.S., C.D., P.C., S.A., J.-P.V.N. and J.G.L.; Visualization, J.B., S.A., J.-P.V.N. and J.G.L.; Supervision, J.B. and J.G.L.; Project Administration, J.B. and J.G.L.; Funding Acquisition, J.G.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board (or Ethics Committee) of Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc (Brussels, Belgium) which received full accreditation from the Association for Accreditation of Human Research Protection Program. Reference #2016/19JAN/016 approved on 4 February 2016.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding authors.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors thank the staff of the School of Dental Medicine (Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium) from the department of Adult and Child Dentistry who performed the treatments in the test group: Gaëtan Larondelle, Julien Beauquis, Jean-Philippe Marien, Laure Spinhayer, Marco Macri, Martin Stalla, Nicolas Martin, Romane Dewaele, Thomas Chiarini, Valentin Michaux. We thank the specialized endodontists who performed the treatments in the control group: Arman Gazi, Charles Dassargues, Pierre Carsin. We thank Lieven Desmet for his assistance in statistical analyses (SMCS, UCLouvain). The authors are extremely grateful to Domenico Ricucci for performing the histological sections and analyses. J.G. Leprince thanks Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc (Brussels, Belgium) for his FRC fellowship.

**Conflicts of Interest:** Julien Beauquis and Julian G. Leprince on behalf of the co-authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
