[Surgical extrusion, an alternative to a dental implant?]

Unfortunately, accidents do happen. Dentoalveolar injury to the front teeth resulting from trauma can sometimes be so problematic that an (adhesive) restoration seems almost impossible to make, let alone saving the tooth. In this contribution the case of a 17-year-old patient whose upper incisor suffered severe dentoalveolar trauma in a traffic accident is presented. His upper incisor was fractured deeply subgingivally, at bone level, and at first glance, appeared to be lost. Surgical extrusion, however, in this patient represents a full alternative to a prosthetic solution, such as a dental implant.