Case #1 — Natural Tooth ReImplant
Saving a failing molar by extracting, treating, and reimplanting the natural tooth.
Our Worth Saving blog takes a deeper dive into the value of preserving your natural teeth. Visit AAE.org to learn more.
Our patient was a 50 year old male with an infection and abscess from a previous root canal on the lower right molar.
Xray #1 – Show’s the tooth pretreatment with an abscess.
Xray #2 – Following a second root canal treatment, there was very little improvement.
Xray #3 – Patient returns 4 weeks later with a more severe infection. Treatment made his condition worse. We also see more severe bone loss.
Xray #4 – We should have called it quits and extracted the tooth but the patient was reluctant to lose it and was willing to take a chance on an alternative treatment to an extraction. Chance of success was likely less than 50%.
We removed the tooth, cleaned and sealed it outside of the mouth and reimplanted it. When done carefully and safely, the ligament holding the tooth can heal!
Xray #5 – 4 months after the extraction/reimplant. You can see that the bone is growing back, the patient is eating comfortably and the outlook is very positive.
Photos of Extraction
