Ankylosis of teeth is a rare dental condition where growing teeth fuse with the surrounding alveolar bone, which prevents full eruption and limits orthodontic treatments. The ankylosis can strike one tooth or multiple teeth with the number of teeth affected making the treatment more complicated. Failure to treat ankylosis can leave the tooth partially erupted, which makes the tooth vulnerable to cavities and infection.

What are some of the potential dental treatment options from a general dentist, cosmetic dentistry specialist, and an orthodontist?

Dental Extraction

Younger patients with permanent teeth trying to erupt around the ankylosis-affected tooth might face tooth extractions before any other treatment. Extracting the fused tooth can help ensure that the other teeth can erupt in the proper position.

Extraction might also become the only possible treatment if the affected tooth has become severely damaged due to cavity or infection. Removing the tooth makes more sense than attempting to install a filling or perform a root canal on a tooth that is fundamentally unsound.

Removing even a healthier fused tooth can widen your treatment possibilities. Orthodontics isn't possible with the fused tooth in place since the tooth can't move independently of the bone.

Orthodontics

Permanent teeth around the fused tooth can end up growing in crowded or shifted out of place. After the fused tooth is removed, an orthodontist can use braces to fix the remaining bite issues with the healthier teeth.

Your orthodontist can't leave the extraction space empty during orthodontics or the other teeth would end up shifting into the hole and thus move further out of position. The orthodontist will instead install a small, removable dental implant root into the space. This root will keep other teeth from moving into the space and reserve that spot for a dental replacement once the orthodontic treatment has completed.

Dental Implant

A cosmetic dentist can install a dental implant as permanent filler for the extracted tooth. Dental implants feel natural while chewing and the metal root helps stimulate jawbone health under the artificial tooth. The bone health stimulation can prove especially helpful if your general dentist had to cut away some of the bone to free the tooth.

Dental implants do involve a lengthy treatment time since you need to make sure the bone has properly fused to the metal root before the artificial crown is placed on top. But the treatment time may be worth it to have a tooth that looks and feels natural and helps the neighboring, orthodontic-treated teeth stay in their corrected positions.