Modern Day Treatment Planning Dilemmas; Natural Tooth Versus Implants

Decision-making about a treatment plan whether to preserve a compromised tooth with endodontic therapy and a protective, functional restoration or to extract and replace it with an implant requires evidence-based diagnosis and recommendations based on patient factors, tooth and periodontium-based factors, and treatment-based factors. The first consideration should be the preservation of the natural dentition as long as possible, since the extraction and implant placement can be done at anytime and the implant treatment is not without risk. This component of the chapter outlines the evidence to recommend and plan the most appropriate treatment when faced with restoring the compromised tooth.