There are lots of reasons for undertaking dental procedures. It can be for maintenance, treatment of disease, or even for cosmetic reasons. Here we look at procedures involving significant surgery.

Apicoectomy - root end resection

Apicoectomy is defined as the excision of the root tip of a tooth. It is a surgical procedure that attempts to remove infection from the affected root tip and the surrounding tissues, which are usually a result of failed root canal surgery. Apicoectomy is done where re-treatment has failed or cannot be done, usually after root canal treatment, and where the tooth has to be retained rather than extracted. It is considered a minor surgery and is sometimes called endodontic microsurgery, as the procedure is performed under an operating microscope.

Tooth transplantation

Tooth transplantation is the transfer of a tooth from one alveolus to another. Autogenous tooth transplantation, or autotransplantation, is the surgical transferring of one tooth from one to location in the mouth to another in the same individual. It is a better alternative for replacing missing teeth and has achieved high success rates. Good survival rates were obtained when teeth with complete and incomplete roots were transplanted.

Bio tooth replacement

Bio-tooth replacement is a more promising alternative to traditional methods of tooth replacement as it involves re-growing or reconstructing the tooth in the mouth. However, this procedure is still not widely accepted as it is still in its development stage. More research has to be done regarding the best way to make or “grow” these bio teeth. Four ways have been proposed: reconstruction of mature tooth as it appears in the mouth, reproduction of the embryonic development, induce a third dentition and create a tooth-shaped scaffold, place some cells in them and wait for the cells to grow.

Of these, reproduction of the embryonic development using cultured cells has shown encouraging results, though bio production is still a distant possibility.