What is PIP?

The PIP Study is looking at alternative ways to treat toothache and tooth decay.

Severe toothache and pain can be caused by tooth decay. Tooth decay is very common and treating decay costs the NHS over £3.4 billion each year. Where the tooth decay has spread deep into the nerve, this is usually treated by taking out the tooth or by Root Canal Treatment. Root canal treatment removes all the nerve from the tooth.

An alternative treatment for this kind of toothache is called a Pulpotomy. A Pulpotomy removes only the damaged part of the nerve, which can be a quicker and less invasive treatment.

Pulpotomy is already used on children’s teeth and on adult teeth when they are being treated in dental hospitals. However, it is not yet routinely used on adult teeth in NHS dental practices. We have recently conducted a PIP Feasibility Study where we took patients’ and dentists’ experiences of the new treatment (Full Pulpotomy) into account to assist us in planning the PIP Study. We successfully met the following criteria and in August 2022 NIHR advised that we can progress on to main study:

Recruited 21 GDPs in 13 practices ✔
Successfully trained all dentists ✔
68% of treatments reached Clinical Fidelity. Once we introduced feedback forms, Clinical Fidelity was then 100% ✔
100% satisfaction from responding participants ✔
0.9 eligible patients were seen per practice per month ✔

Now we are moving onto planning and recruitment for the full PIP Study, where we will recruit 50 dental practices in England and Scotland. The dentists will recruit 530 NHS adult (16 years and older) dental patients who have Irreversible Pulpitis in permanent premolar and molar teeth and who agree to take part.

PIP Study primary objectives are:

To compare the clinical success of Full Pulpotomy (FP) with Root Canal Treatment (RCTx) (no re-intervention or symptoms of pulpitis or apical periodontitis) at 1 year.
To compare the costs and benefits of Full Pulpotomy (FP) with Root Canal Treatment (RCTx) over a modelled life-time horizon.

PIP Study Secondary objectives are:

To evaluate radiographic success (absence of radiolucency in participant’s initial intervention), patient health related quality of life, dental pain, dental anxiety, satisfaction with care/treatment and adverse events at 1 year. Patient health related quality of life and dental pain at 7 days.
To determine general population preferences for treatment and outcomes and predict uptake, NHS and patient perspective costs; incremental net benefit over the study follow up; and incremental cost per QALY over the 1-year follow-up and extrapolated over a modelled lifetime horizon.
To explore the implementation of technologies and the mechanisms of impact including acceptability of interventions to patient and clinicians.

The PIP Study is a £1.9m multicenter randomised controlled study.

Professors Clarkson and Ramsay are funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) HTA for this research project. Visit NIHR website

Can I take part?

We are recruiting dental practices in England and Scotland. For more information about taking part in the PIP Study please contact PIP-Study@dundee.ac.uk or click on the following link / QR code to complete the Site Initiation Questionnaire (SIQ), this will take no more than 10-15 minutes.
QR Code

If you are interested in taking part, or have any questions

The PIP Study are recruiting NHS dental practices and participants in England (London and Liverpool) and Scotland.

If you would like more information about what is involved, please get in touch.

Our study email address is PIP-Study@dundee.ac.uk

Main Street Dental Care

Key people:

Investigator:

Anita Belbin

Address:

45A Main Street
Thornliebank
Glasgow
G46 7SF

Rankin Dental

Key people:

Investigator:

Mr Mark Rankin

Address:

30 Ellon Road
Bridge of Don
Aberdeen
AB23 8BX

Laws Dental

Key people:

Investigator:

Dawn Ritchie

Address:

6 Brown Steet
Carnoustie
DD7 7EZ

Barrow Street Dental Practice

Key people:

Investigator:

Serena Halsall

Address:

20 Barrow Street
St Helens
WA10 1RX

Butler & Finnigan Dental Practice

Key people:

Investigator:

Mr Kurt Finnigan

Address:

2 Market Square
Bishops Castle
Shropshire
SY9 5BN

Broadway Dental Practice

Key people:

Investigator:

Mohammed Shafiq

Address:

107 Townsend Avenue
Norris Green
Liverpool
L11 8NB

Crown Dental Group

Key people:

Investigator:

Mr Peter Coster

Address:

83 Crown Street
Aberdeen
AB11 6EX

Causeway Dental Practice

Key people:

Investigator:

Mr Laurie Powell

Address:

23 Causeway
Bicester
OX26 6AN

Collins House Dental Surgery

Key people:

Investigator:

Ms Kay Mileson

Address:

19 St Owen Street
Hereford
HR1 2JB

Corstorphine Dental Centre

Key people:

Investigator:

Ms Annette Robinson

Address:

96 Saughton Road North
Edinburgh
EH12 7JU

Bathampton Dental Practice

Key people:

Investigator:

Ms Sarah Taylor

Address:

29 Holcombe Lane
Bathampton
Bath
BA2 6UL

Inverurie Dental Practice

Key people:

Investigator:

Ms Emma Weir

Address:

13 High Street
Inverurie
AB51 3QA

8 to 8 Dental

Key people:

Investigator:

Ms Nikita Desai

Address:

32 West Church Street
Buckie
AB56 1JS

Abercrombie Dental Practice

Key people:

Investigator:

Ms Celia Veyron La Croix

Address:

10 Abercrombie Court
Prospect Road
Westhill
AB32 6FE

Princes End Dental Practice

Key people:

Investigator:

Mr Ateef Azam

Address:

Glebefields Health Centre
St Mark's Road
Tipton
DY4 0SN

Whitestone Family Dental

Key people:

Investigator:

Giedrius Stasiulevichius

Address:

41 Lutterworth Road
Nuneaton
CV11 4LE

R Coventry Dental Practice

Key people:

Investigator:

Mr Richard Coventry

Address:

2 New Trows Road
Lesmahagow
South Lanarkshire
ML11 0EW

Artis Dental & Impant Studio

Key people:

Investigator:

Mr Brian Clough

Address:

4 Main Street
Balerno
Midlothian
EH14 7EH

Study news

Recruitment

16/530

Trial sites

Latest addition to sites:

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  				Artis Dental & Impant Studio
  	
  				R Coventry Dental Practice 
  	
  				Whitestone Family Dental
  	
  				Princes End Dental Practice 
  	
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Key facts about the study and documents

I am a dentist – how do I join the study?

The PIP Study

The PIP study will compare the effectiveness of Full Pulpotomy and Root Canal Treatment for Irreversible Pulpitis in permanent premolar and molar teeth in adults. The study will take place in primary care dental practices across Scotland and England.

PIP Study

We will recruit 530 patient participants from 50 general dental practices in Scotland and England. We are looking for dental practices to recruit 11 adult patients (16 years and older) seeking treatment at NHS dental practices with symptoms indicative of Irreversible Pulpitis in a premolar/molar tooth with deep caries and or a deep restoration.

The patient must be willing to be randomly allocated (computer generated) to one of the two study groups – Full Pulpotomy or Root Canal Treatment.
The PIP Study will take place over 12 months and patient participants will be followed up by the PIP Study Team in Dundee at 7 days and then again by GDP at 1 year after treatment. Link to PIP Flyer

The NHS National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme has commissioned a collaborative team from the Universities of Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow, King's College London, Liverpool, Sheffield, and NHS Education for Scotland to conduct this research.

If you are interested in being involved in this primary care research study, or would like further details, please contact us to arrange a short briefing to answer any questions you may have about involvement with PIP.

Contact the team: PIP-Study@dundee.ac.uk

PPI (Patient & Public Involvement) in Dental Clinical Research, We Need You!!!

                        
                        Are you interested in joining a Patient & Public Involvement Group?  Members of the public are being invited to help support the PIP & SCRiPT Dental Research Studies, you can find more information about joining the group here and here.

 If you would like to express an interest in joining the PPI Group, please click the following link 
https://forms.office.com/r/jNmpuBRN00 / QR code to complete the PPI Group Expressions of Interest Form, this will take no more than 5 minutes to complete, thank you.

Key contacts

Click on cards to find out more

Organisation

Funding acknowledgement

Professors Clarkson and Ramsay are funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) HTA for this research project. Visit the NIHR website (NIHR HTA ref: NIHR129230).
Trial Sponsor: University of Dundee

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WELCOME TO THE PIP STUDY

Pulpotomy or root canal treatment for the management of Irreversible Pulpitis in mature teeth (PIP Study)

What is PIP?

Can I take part?

If you are interested in taking part, or have any questions

Where can I take part?

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Study news

Recruitment

Trial sites

Latest addition to sites:

Key facts about the study and documents

I am a dentist – how do I join the study?

PPI (Patient & Public Involvement) in Dental Clinical Research, We Need You!!!

Key contacts

Click on cards to find out more

Chief Investigator Prof Jan Clarkson

Chief Investigator Professor Craig Ramsay

Trial office PIP Study Office

Organisation