Treatment of an ankylosed central incisor by single tooth dento-osseous osteotomy and a simple distraction device

When teeth are replanted after being avulsed, the repair process sometimes results in ankylosis. In a growing child, the ankylosed tooth fails to move along with the remaining alveolar process during vertical growth, resulting in a tooth that gradually appears more and more impacted and requires several reconstructive procedures to correct. Ankylosed teeth can, however, serve as anchorage for orthodontic correction of a malocclusion and as a point of force application for a dentoalveolar segment during alveolar distraction osteogenesis. This case report describes the treatment of a 13-year-old girl whose maxillary left central incisor had been avulsed and replanted 5 years earlier. The tooth had become ankylosed, and it was used to provide “free anchorage” during distalization of the maxillary dentition. The underdeveloped alveolar process adjacent to the ankylosed tooth was reconstructed by dento-osseous segment distraction osteogenesis, by using the ankylosed tooth as the point of force application.