Premolar child-to-parent grafting within the framework of orthodontic serial extraction

While allografting of human teeth holds all the risks and problems of immunological reactions or host-versus-graft reactions encountered in any organ transplantation, root resorption and thus the loss of the grafted tooth may be delayed by several decades if the transfer is between close relatives and minimum histocompatibility is 50%. In 2 cases premolars with incomplete root growth, which had to be extracted because of considerable crowding, were transplanted from child to mother and child to father, respectively. The grafts healed without complications and after a retention time of several weeks the teeth were attached. Three years after transplantation the teeth show only minor signs of root resorption and are fully functional.