Fragment reattachment / Biological restoration

Introduction

Coronal fractures are the most frequent traumatic injuries that affect permanent teeth. Majority of dental injuries involve the anterior teeth, especially maxillary incisors whereas the mandibular central incisors and maxillary lateral incisors are less frequently involved.

Reattachment of original tooth fragment has some advantages like natural tooth contours, texture, colour, translucency with better esthetic. Even, it enhances the durability because of natural incisal wear resistance of a sound dental tissue.

Advantages

• Offering easy reproduction of shape, contour, and texture of the natural tooth.
• Provides unchanged colour and optical characteristics.

Disadvantages

• Colour change due to inadequate rehydration of the fragment.
• Carries the possibility of detachment of the fragment.

Case Report

A 9-year-old girl reported to our clinic with a traumatic injury while playing. On clinical examination, Ellis class III fracture was present i.r.t. 11. A pinpoint exposure was seen i.r.t. 11. No symptoms of pain or swelling reported. So, Cvek’s pulpotomy using MTA was planned w.r.t. same followed by composite build up.

While doing the parental counselling on treatment, parents were explained to on the benefits of fractured tooth fragment and its consequences in the future. Parents went back to school at the injury site and found out the tooth fragment. As discussed, they immediately put the fragment in cold milk and came back.

Extremely happy to see the results of positive counselling, changed the treatment plan to Cvek’s pulpotomy using MTA followed by fragment reattachment using flowable composite resin.