Rapid advances in the basic sciences and the development of sophisticated instrumentation have had a profound effect on our knowledge of every organ in the body. The dental pulp is no exception. There are technical difficulties in deriving information from the pulp, an organ or tissue that is difficult to see because it is encased by the hardest materials in the body. Some of these difficulties have been overcome by ingenious research since the publication of our last two editions. The objective of the third edition of The Dental Pulp remains the same as that of the first two: To advocate the use of clinical procedures that are based on scientific facts. As always, the purpose of this text is to correlate clinical practice with basic science. Ultimately, an underpinning of basic science leads to the most effective clinical treatment. The rapid development of scientific information is of little value it if cannot be applied clinically.