A 3D printed surgical analogue to reduce donor tooth trauma during autotransplantation

ABSTRACT

Surgical trauma and prolonged extra-alveolar exposure of the donor tooth’s root sheath are both complicating factors during tooth autotransplantation surgery. This case report describes a 12-year-old female patient who underwent surgical transplantation of a maxillary second premolar to a central incisor site. A three-dimensional printed analogue of the donor tooth was fabricated from a cone beam (CBCT) scan of the tooth in order to minimise the extra-oral (exposure) time and frequency of trial insertions of the donor tooth into the recipient socket. The laboratory and clinical aspects of this novel technique are described.

KEYWORDS:

• Tooth transplantation
• CBCT
• 3D printing
• root trauma

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to 3D digital technician, Geoffrey Oliver, for his technical expertise in producing the analogue tooth.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.