Evaluation of the prognosis and causes of failure in 182 cases of autogenous tooth transplantation

Objectives. Autotransplantation is a viable option for treating missing teeth when a donor tooth is available. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognosis in addition to the causes of failure in 182 autotransplanted teeth. Study design. A total of 182 cases of autotransplantation were analyzed. All the transplants were performed according to a computer-aided rapid prototyping technique with an average extraoral time of 7.58 minutes. These cases were followed for 2 to 60 months after surgery. The prognosis was divided into 4 groups, complete healing, incomplete healing, uncertain healing, and failure. The initial stability, root resorption, and ankylosis were also analyzed. Results. Most transplanted teeth showed complete healing between postoperative 2 months and 8 months. The transplanted teeth with a good initial stability showed better initial healing than those with a poor initial stability. The average extraoral time was 7.58 min (range: immediately after extraction up to 25 min). There was no relationship (P >.05) between the extraoral time and either root resorption (4 cases, 2.4%) or ankylosis (18 cases, 10.7%) within this experimental time period. Nine cases (4.5%) failed. Conclusion. This study showed a 4.5% failure rate during the short to intermediate observation period. Autotransplantation is a very useful method for replacing missing teeth, provided that the extraoral time and other factors are well controlled.