Spontaneous uprighting of permanent tooth germs after elimination of local eruption obstacles

Four clinical cases are presented to demonstrate the self-correcting potential of aberrant tooth germs after the elimination of eruption obstacles (in 2 cases cysts, in 2 other cases severely infraoccluded primary teeth). In the case of the submerging deciduous teeth, the tilted adjacent teeth were orthodontically uprighted after the surgical procedure. Possible causative mechanisms are discussed.