Developments in autotransplantation of teeth.

Transplantation of teeth has been done for hundreds of years. In the late 18th and early 19th century transplants of teeth between individuals were relatively common at specialist dental practices in London. Surprisingly tooth allotransplants have been found to last 6 years on average. In Scandinavia during the 1950 and 1960's autotransplantation of teeth began to be carried out under increasingly controlled conditions. These have proved to be very successful in long term studies with autotransplants surviving up to 45 years post-surgery. Recent developments in cone beam CT and rapid 3D prototyping have enabled the fabrication of accurate surgical templates which can be used to prepare the recipient site immediately prior to transplantation. This has resulted in a drastically reduced extra-oral time for the transplant teeth which can be expected to improve success rates further. Autotransplants provide significant advantages compared to single tooth implants and should be considered the treatment of choice in the growing child.