Clinical and radiographic characterization of external root resorption

The following bibliographic review was carried out with the purpose of recognizing the clinical and radiographic characteristics that must be considered in the diagnosis of external root resorption, including treatments.

A bibliographic search was carried out in PubMed/Medline, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar databases under the term "external root resorption", from 2010 to 2022 in Spanish and English. Experimental studies and bibliographic reviews were selected, and finally 17 articles were included.

The results obtained indicated that each type of resorption presents specific clinical characteristics that differentiate them, these are: for external inflammatory resorption a negative pulp vitality; for replacement external resorption the absence of mobility and metallic percussion; for cervical external resorption a pink coloration of the crown; superficial external resorption does not present any type of clinical symptoms and transient apical collapse presents a transient change in color.

External root resorptions require accurate and early diagnosis. A clinical examination should be performed with emphasis on the following: probing, coloration, mobility, and vitality tests.