Flapless Decoronation: A Minimally Invasive Approach

Traumatic injuries to the permanent dentition are most common in children. In severe dentoalveolar injuries, especially avulsion and intrusion, dentoalveolar ankylosis is a common complication, leading to adverse effects on the developing alveolar bone and interfering with the eruption of the adjacent teeth. The decoronation procedure was suggested in 1984 to reduce these side effects related to ankylosis. The objective of the current publication is to describe a minimally invasive, flapless decoronation procedure aimed to minimize and simplify the surgical procedure of decoronation, and ease its clinical acceptance, particularly in young children. The technique is described in a detailed protocol and demonstrated in two cases. Under local anesthesia, the dental crown is removed, and the root is reduced by 1.5–2.0 mm apically to the marginal bone crest. The root canal content is then removed, allowing it to fill with blood. The socket is coronally sealed with a porcine-derived collagen matrix (PDCM) sutured using the “parachute” technique over the resected root, allowing close adaptation to the surrounding soft tissue. In conclusion, the presented technique of flapless decoronation is a modification of the classic decoronation procedure, which can be used as a minimally invasive technique to simplify the surgical procedure and the post-operative process.