What is the prognosis for extrusion of a root canal-treated tooth under 2mm?

Doctor's Answer

If you have a root canal-treated tooth that has failed, you can extract it. I mean if it is a hopeless case, there’s no way of saving it, you have to extract it. But the problem with extracting root canal-treated teeth is that they are very weak and brittle. So when the dentist tries to extract the tooth, there’s always a chance that the tooth may shatter and it may break or fracture.

Extracting wisdom teeth could be simple if the dentist is skilled and is able to remove the tooth in one piece but if the tooth breaks or fractures, it becomes a very difficult extraction. It could turn into very difficult surgery, especially if the tooth breaks and the root is left behind. That is the extraction of a root canal-treated tooth that if it is infected and there’s no more hope to save the tooth anymore.

And then there’s another thing called extrusion. But that is a different matter. Extrusion is when you use orthodontics like braces to extrude the tooth. When you extrude the tooth, you are trying to pull the tooth out of the bone socket so that the dentist can actually restore the tooth by having more tooth structure for the crown to grip on.

So the prognosis of that is really a case-by-case basis. However, there are some cases where we use braces to extrude teeth so that we can actually save them.

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