Pathological Tooth Migration Paper

Pathological tooth migration (PTM) is indisputably one of the dentoalveolar disorders that cause special concern to patients especially when occurring in the anterior segment. There appear to be multiple factors which are important in the expression of the tooth migration namely, bone loss, followed by tooth loss and gingival inflammation. Other factors that can be contributory to tooth migration include an aberrant frenal attachment, pressure from the cheek and tongue as well as that from the granulation tissue in the periodontal pockets, gingival overgrowth due to drugs occlusal factors such as missing or unreplaced teeth, shortened dental arches, excessive vertical overlap, posterior bite collapse, class II malocclusion and habits such as

CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS:

PTM may manifest itself as diastema, flaring, tipping or tilting of the teeth, proximal drifting, rotations, and extrusions. This alteration may occur in an individual tooth, or a segment of teeth or an entire arch .No matter what may be the clinical picture, but the underlying cause is almost always a weakened periodontium as a result of moderate to severe periodontitis. Since periodontitis is a painless process, unless in severe stages, patients tend to ignore it and approach the clinicians occasionally for complaints of tooth mobility or migration.

ETIOLOGY:

The loss of periodontal support:

Forces that are tolerable to an intact periodontium become deleterious when periodontal support is reduced (Carranza et al 2006). Loss of periodontal support is the chief predisposing factor as it epitomizes a reduction of a tooth resistance to impact of outer pressures. The weakened tooth is unable to sustain its normal position in the arch and tries to escape from opposing force by moving