Autologous Tooth Transplantation in Craniofacial Malformations

To evaluate the applicability of transplanted teeth in young patients with craniofacial anomalies.

Observational study.

Comprehensive Centre for Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Malformations.

Patients with craniofacial anomalies who underwent tooth transplantation. Only children with complete clinical and radiological documentation and a follow-up period of at least 1.5 years were included.

Tooth transplantation.

Retrospective evaluation of clinical records, pre- and postoperative radiographs, and operative charts. Clinical characteristics of patients, preoperative parameters and postoperative outcome parameters were collected.

A total of 17 patients with 23 tooth transplantations were included. The median follow-up period was 6.7 years. The pooled survival and success rates were 91%. Notably, one out of two teeth that were transplanted into the bone grafted alveolar cleft site had to be extracted, which might indicating a higher risk for this procedure. In total, two transplanted teeth had to be extracted during the follow-up period, one due to external resorption and the other one due to perio-endo lesion. One patient needed endodontic treatment due to pulp necrosis.

We consider tooth transplantation to be a reliable and suitable procedure in the dental rehabilitation of young patients with craniofacial anomalies and fitting concomitant circumstances. We encourage craniofacial teams to reconsider this option more frequently in appropriate cases.