The Dental pulp has remained a diagnostic enigma to the dental surgeon. While some dental pulps would react inadvertently even to the slightest injury, at other times highly resistant pulp tissue has regenerative properties even after extensive damage has been noted. However, most of the time clinicians can make a uniform decision about the status of the dental pulp with the help of clinical signs and symptoms and make a patient-centric treatment plan that can provide pain relief and restore the form and function of the tooth. A distinction needs to be made between acute and chronic inflammatory conditions of the pulp and between the reversibility or irreversibility of the pulpal changes so that appropriate vital or non-vital pulp therapies can be selected.

It is also important to distinguish between inflammatory conditions and degenerative conditions of the pulp. While inflammation almost always requires intervention, changes like degenerative calcific changes may require observation and occasional intervention.