Immediate vs late orthodontic extrusion of traumatically intruded teeth

Although the published papers about this matter is limited to clinical case reports, the aim of this review was to quantify the success rate of immediate vs late orthodontic extrusion of traumatically intruded teeth. From 55 reports in a PubMed and Medline computerized search, 13 reported patients involving 22 traumatically intruded anterior upper teeth with orthodontic extrusion were selected. In the sample of 13 patients, six were males and seven females and the average age was 16.4 years old. The selection criteria were patients presenting traumatized anterior upper teeth resulting in intrusive luxation, with at least 1 year follow-up period. Orthodontic extrusive forces were applied in the immediate group within 10 weeks post-trauma, while in the late group the forces were applied only after 3 months post-trauma. Immediate and late orthodontic extrusion was extremely favorable. The success rate (without or with complications) was 95.4% against only 4.5% (1 tooth) because of inflammatory root resorption with rapid progression. All mature teeth (100%) were endodontically treated. Among the 12 immature traumatically intruded teeth, eight were endodontically treated and four were not. A high rate of success was reported in the literature in traumatically intruded teeth orthodontically extruded, either immediate or late.