Oral pain due to severe pre-eruptive intracoronal resorption in permanent tooth.

BACKGROUND: Pre-eruptive intracoronal resorption is a dental lesion located within the dentin. This defect is usually discovered incidentally on routine dental radiographs. Occasionally this process may be associated with oral pain in advanced lesions. CASE REPORT: This case report describes a 12-year-old boy whose chief complaint was a diffuse oral pain due to a severe pre-eruptive intracoronal resorption in a permanent second molar. The previous radiographs, taken at the age of nine years, showed no evidence of the lesion. After surgical exposure, a pulp-like tissue under the crown was removed and analyzed; subsequently the tooth was extracted due to extensive resorption. A follow-up of the unerupted third molar, still in formation process, allowed to see that it was favourably positioned for replacing the extracted molar.