Abstract
The patient was a man in his thirties. During extraction of the left mandibular third molar, the distal root of the tooth was accidentally inserted into the oral floor. As the inserted tooth root could not be returned to the extraction socket, it was decided to remove the root by approaching from a marginal incision on the lingual side at a later date. A gingival marginal incision was made from the distal aspect on the lingual side of the left mandibular second molar to the mesial angle on the lingual side of the left mandibular first molar, and a full-thickness flap was elevated to confirm the inserted tooth root. The root was grasped with cupped forceps and removed, and hemostasis was achieved with sutures. The sutures were removed one week later and progress was satisfactory. We discuss the importance of determining the difficulty of an extraction along with the possibility of procedural accidents and measures to address them prior to the procedure, in order to avoid accidental insertion into the oral floor. We also consider the importance of using computed tomography imaging in the event of accidental insertion into the oral floor for selecting an appropriate method of removal.
