Injury to the permanent tooth germ after trauma to the deciduous predecessor

Abstract It appears from the literature that the defect of a traumatic injury to deciduous teeth may be dilaceration, hypocalcification, or hypoplasia of the permanent successors. A survey is given of eighteen patients with twenty malformed teeth. In eighteen cases, dilaceration was observed, and in two, hypoplasia of the crown. In thirteen cases, trauma to the deciduous dentition was known with certainty from the case histories. In fourteen, dilacerated teeth in the upper jaw were all unerupted; three of the four dilacerated teeth in the lower jaw had erupted, but their pulps appeared to be nonvital. This nonvitality could not be explained. Early consultation with an orthodontist is necessary in order to make a choice of either ligation and orthodontic treatment or removal and orthodontic closure of the diastema.