The Use of Intentional Replantation to Repair an External Cervical Resorptive Lesion Not Amenable to Conventional Surgical Repair

Intentional replantation consists of purposefully extracting a tooth, correcting the defect and replanting it into its original socket. This case report describes how this technique was used to successfully restore an external cervical resorptive (ECR) lesion. A 22-year-old man was diagnosed with ECR of the mandibular right canine following clinical and radiographic examination. CBCT showed the lesion had been initiated distally and extended circumferentially around the root canal. The nature of the resorptive lesion meant that it was inaccessible to repair conventionally in a predictable manner. This report describes how intentional replantation was used to access and restore the lesion with minimal patient cooperation and postoperative discomfort. At an 18-month recall the tooth was clinically sound with no radiographic evidence of inflammatory or replacement root resorption. Intentional replantation should be considered a viable treatment option when ECR is inaccessible and cannot be restored using conventional techniques.