Abstract
A right maxillary central incisor was displaced traumatically in an 8-year-old boy, and 40 hours had passed before he came to the Pedodontic Clinic, Gifu College of Dentistry.
In August 1979, the patient bruised him self against at the wall of the swimmingpool, and exarticulated and invaginated. At the clinic, the tooth socket was gently curetted, the avulsed tooth was kept in penicillin solution and then tooth was packed with gauze soaked in saline while the periodontal membrane adhering to the root surface was scraped off, and then the root canal was filled extraorally with Calvital®, then the tooth was reimplanted and repositioned in the socket, and stabilised with a splint and with the lateral incisors.
Radiographic examination was made regularly. During the first 9 months the radiographs showed a very favorable prognosis without any apparent change surrounding the root of the reimplanted tooth, but peripheral resorption of root appered while the tooth was firmly fixed in the socket clinically.
Reimplantation is clinically accepta b le treatment, especially among young patients, whose teeth and alveolar ridge are still developing. Although the reimplanted tooth have to be removed eventually because of root resorption. It is worth maintaining the teeth for a few years to prevent the emotional shock caused by trauma, and also to provide the possible developing of the alveolar ridge, which is necessary for future bridge work.
