Success and survival of autotransplanted premolars and molars during short-term clinical follow-up.

Abstract

Autotransplantation is an elegant therapy for single tooth replacement that is too often overlooked in patients with missing teeth. Especially, autotransplantation of third molars to replace heavily damaged or missing molars is often not considered. This study investigated the success and survival of autotransplanted premolars and molars during clinical follow-up. The medical files and radiographs of 97 consecutive patients were retrospectively investigated. Seventy-nine patients could be included in this study. Autotransplantation of 97 premolars and 14 molars (111 procedures) was performed. The median follow-up time was equal to 13.4 months. In this study group, 82.0% of transplanted teeth were classified as successful and 98.2% were present at the end of follow-up. No transplants were extracted during standard follow-up of 1 year. The 5-year tooth survival probability was 87.5% (95%CI 64.5-100). One premolar and one molar were extracted, respectively, 4 and 9 years after autotransplantation. These results show that autotransplantation is associated with high success and survival rates and can provide a reliable treatment option for tooth replacement in young patients. Further research regarding long-term outcome is necessary to assess if the transplanted teeth function as normal teeth after clinical follow-up.