MANAGEMENT OF THE IMPACTED TOOTH ASSOCIATED WITH DENTIGEROUS CYST IN AUTISTIC YOUNG PATIENTS

Abstract

Autism is a developmental, neuropsychiatric disorder that begins in early childhood. A patient with autism seen in the dental office frequently may have many complications. Therefore, it may be needed to consider modified or alternative therapy for dental care of autistic patients. This is the case of a 16-year old boy who have autism. He came to the department of the pediatric dentistry, Yonsei University Dental Hospital, for evaluation and treatment of dentigerous cyst associated with impacted teeth(#33,34,35). Under daily hospitalization and general anesthesia, the cyst was enucleated with surgical extraction of #34 and autotransplantation of #33,35. And during the periodic dental followup, apexification of #33,35 was performed for periapical lesion and root maturity. At 2 year 6 months follow- up, now, bony healing was completed and there are some complications like external resorption of #33 and space loss of #34 area. Generally, the marsupialization has been widely recommended for treatment of dentigerous cyst. However, in this case, there is a little possibility of spontaneous eruption after marsupialization considering of patient's age, location and angulation of the impacted tooth, root maturity. And there is necessity to choose the treatment that has low recurrence risk and needs short-term follow-up for autism. Above all, poor oral hygiene and lack of cooperation for decompression treatment is a matter of primary consideration. Consequently, enucleation of the cyst was chosen for the final treatment plan in this case. It is important to consider the conditions that affect the eruption of a dentigerous cyst-associated tooth to predict the successful eruption and special health care needs of the patient when the treatment plan is settled.