Natural tooth as an interim prosthesis.

A traumatic injury to primary maxillary anterior tooth is one of the common causes for problems with the succedaneous tooth leading to it noneruption. A missing anterior tooth can be psychologically and socially damaging to the patient. Despite a wide range of treatment options available, sometimes, it is inevitable to save the natural tooth. This paper describes the immediate replacement of a right central incisor using a fiber-composite resin splint with the natural tooth crown as a pontic following surgical extraction of the dilacerated impacted permanent maxillary central incisor. The abutment teeth can be conserved with minimal or no preparation, thus keeping the technique reversible and can be completed at chair side thereby avoiding laboratory costs. It can be used as an interim measure until a definitive prosthesis can be fabricated as the growth is still incomplete.