Forced eruption: raising the root with gentle, continuous force in a coronal direction

Feb. 25, 2010
Dr. Rob Veis explains how forced eruption can be used as an alternative therapy to maintain a healthy, intact masticatory system when practitioners are faced with difficult clinical situations.

By Rob Veis, DDS

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A new patient comes in for a routine clinical examination. Upon review of his radiographs, you notice extensive recurrent decay in the upper right cuspid which had been previously treated with a root canal post and crown. After a thorough examination, you decide that this tooth must be saved as it is a key abutment for the patient’s anterior bridge and partial denture.

A patient comes in with a horizontal fracture just above the crest of the bone in tooth No. 8. Because of the patient’s high lip line, it is clear that an extraction or osseous surgery would severely compromise an esthetic result.

A 45-year-old patient comes in complaining of food impaction on the lower left side between tooth No. 19 and No. 20. Clinically, the tooth exhibited an 8 mm pocket and probing proved that it was a one-wall osseous defect. After a periodontal consult, it was decided that osseous surgery would jeopardize the first molar by exposing the furcation.


One of the primary goals of restorative dentistry is to replace form, function, and esthetics lost due to trauma or disease.1 As dentists, we constantly face difficult clinical problems like the above mentioned cases. When clinical situations like these arise, we must be equipped with alternatives in therapy to maintain a healthy, intact masticatory system.2 Forced eruption is such a therapy.

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