DILACERATION.... A FREQUENTLY ENCOUNTERED CHALLENGE IN DENTAL TREATMENTS!!

Almost all teeth have roots with an angulation at some point along the long axis. Dilaceration refers to an angulation that may occur anywhere along the length of the tooth, that is, its crown, amelocemental junction , along the root or by only involving the apex of the root.1 The most widely accepted cause is mechanical trauma to the primary predecessor tooth , which results in dilaceration of the developing permanent tooth. An idiopathic developmental disturbance is proposed as another cause in cases that have no clear evidence of traumatic injury.2 Diagnosing dilaceration is critical as severely angulated roots of teeth may complicate dental treatments like root canal treatment, extraction and orthodontic treatment. Thus, root angulation of teeth influences the planning and execution of dental treatment to varying extents.3 Although dilaceration of a crown can be visually observed in an intraoral inspection, radiographic examination is required to diagnose dilaceration of a tooth root. Orthopantomograms may be routinely employed as an initial screening or diagnostic modality to determine the extent of dilaceration.2 In the literature only few articles have reported the prevalence of dilacerations. Thus, the following study was done to evaluate the prevalence of root dilacerations in central India population with respect to gender, jaws, dental localization as well as to measure the extent of dilacerations in an individual tooth.