Canal Exposure

A 35-year-old timid woman finally decides to have 4 of the 3rd molars extracted (Fig.1).  The apices of #17 overlaps with the Inferior Alveolar Canal (*).  Small field CT shows that #17 is buccal to #18 (Fig.2), causing distal root exposure (Fig.3 D).  In fact the buccal overlap seems to be more severe clinically (Fig.4) than what X-ray indicate (Fig.1,3).  Therefore bone graft seems to be able to be packed mesially (Fig.5: G).  In fact the left Inferior Alveolar Canal is exposed after extraction, collagen plug (P) is placed distal without use of curette around the exposed canal.

Return to Plug
Xin Wei, DDS, PhD, MS 1st edition 03/19/2021, last revision 03/20/2021