Objective: To compare the efficacy of caries removal, time taken and to evaluate the pain threshold experienced by the patient during various caries removal methods.
Study design: Eighty patients between the age groups of 5-9 years were selected and caries removal was done by hand instruments, airotor, carisolv and papacarie. The efficacy, time taken and the pain threshold was evaluated during the caries removal by Ericson D et al scale, visual analogue scale respectively.
Results: Highly significant relation (< 0.05) was observed when intergroup comparison was made using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Conclusion: It was concluded that chemomechanical removal of caries with Papacarie and Carisolv were found to be effective measures of caries removal and could be considered as viable alternatives to painful procedures like Airotor in management of dental caries especially in children.