Jeremy Bewley I was working up a case referred by a colleague recently and part of the referral, in addition to an implant, was that the patient complained about a chronic dull ache ever since he'd had a tooth extracted a few years ago. A PA from the referring dentist demonstrated that there was a retained root:
Sidexis CBCT image demonstrated it this way:
As I was planning his implant for the number 5 position in Galaxis I was trying to decide what to do about this root tip when it hit me:
I figured there was an accessible path for an osteotomy that would allow access to the root tip, and if I couldn't deliver the fragment I could simply drill through it. I didn't much feel like cutting a huge hole in his palate and risking damaging the vital #3, so I designed a pair of CG2 guides and printed them.
After delivering the implant I accessed the root
I was unsuccessful trying to deliver the root tip intact, so I drilled through it, felt confident that it was obliterated, grafted and closed, and here's the postop:
After using this method for guided implant osteotomies for so many years so successfully, I had every confidence that I would be able to access the root tip and minimize the risk to the adjacent tooth. Guided root extractions.....I love what Sirona technology and a little out of the box thinking can do for our patients!
