Surgical uprighting and repositioning of unerupted molars: Features and findings of a retrospective sample

BACKGROUND: Surgical uprighting and repositioning have been proposed to obtain a correct alignment of unerupted permanent molars. A retrospective clinical study was performed to verify the effectiveness of these techniques. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In order for a case to be included in the study, adequate clinical documentation was required, including radiographic imaging before and after therapy. The degree of inclination of each treated molar was evaluated on pre-operative panoramic radiographs. RESULTS: Fifty-two molars were studied. Molar involvement was more frequent in the mandible (45 cases=86.54%) than in the maxilla (7 cases=13.66%). The mean age of patients treated with completely formed molars was 17.28±2.86, while that of patients with incompletely formed molars was 12.89±1.75. The most frequent position was mesio-angular (39=75%) with a mean inclination of 31.61°±12.9° (range 5.57°-61.26°). Disto-angular molars had a mean inclination of -28.84°±6.49° (range -23.79°- -36.16°). Surgical uprighting was performed in 37 cases (71.15%), while surgical repositioning was performed in 15 cases (28.85%). Three cases were lost during the follow-up. The outcome was positive in the remaining 49 cases. Complications occurred in only 4 surgeries (7.69%). CONCLUSIONS: Surgical uprighting and repositioning are reliable therapeutic solutions for unerupted mandibular molars, with a favorable prognosis. Key words:Molar impacted, surgical repositioning, surgical up-righiting, tooth impacted, tooth unerupted.