New philosophy for the treatment of avulsed teeth.

The success rate of replanted avulsed teeth has been low. This poor success rate results from the use of only one treatment regimen. This treatment regimen, replantation as quickly as possible regardless of circumstances, ignores much of the dental research that shows this regimen to not be efficacious. In addition, the profession has disregarded much of the research that shows many recommended storage media damaging to avulsed teeth. This article reviews the pertinent research on avulsed teeth and recommends a new treatment philosophy of avulsed teeth that delineates 10 treatment categories based on the type of storage medium used, the length of extraoral time, and the stage of development of the root apex.