2025 Spring | Root Resorption

CE Hours: 0.5

Description:

Root resorption has been a fascinating and intriguing entity for dental professionals for many years. It is a dental condition characterized by a physiologic or a pathologic process resulting in the loss of dentin and/or cementum which begins either in the periodontal ligament areas or within the pulpal tissues. Root resorption has generally been divided into two broad categories which are based on where the identified resorptive process has originated from — either internal or external. Bates (1) is credited with an early report of root resorption (“absorption”) which he described in 1856 in the orthodontic literature. In 1894, Gaskill (2) presented one of the earliest case studies on “internal root resorption” describing a central incisor with an internal resorptive lesion with no external opening. Henry and Weinman (3) published a histological study of extracted teeth in 1951 and found that greater than 90% of the teeth they looked at showed some evidence related to external root resorption. During this 100-year period (1856-1951), many other reports of root resorption can also be found primarily in the orthodontic and periodontic literature. Jens Andreasen (4,5) published a series of studies in the 1960’s describing three types of external root resorption that were specifically related to traumatic dental injuries — surface root resorption, inflammatory root resorption and replacement root resorption (ankylosis) thus linking the endodontic specialty to root resorption. In 1979, Harrington and Natkin (6) were the first to describe post-bleaching cervical resorption in their case series report. Their report consisted of four cases involving young patients with a history of dental trauma, subsequent root canal therapy and internal bleaching that all resulted in a cervical resorptive lesion developing. Two years later, Al Frank (7) first described “extracanal invasive resorption” in another case series report. Since then, there have been many case reports and studies on root resorption that have both expanded our knowledge base in this area as well as introducing many more questions that remain to be answered. 

Learning Objectives:

• Explain what conditions need to be in place for root resorption to occur.
• Compare and contrast the variations seen in each type of root resorption of external etiology.
• Develop a treatment rationale for each type of root resorption.