Cracked Tooth Syndrome...

Cracked Tooth Syndrome: Here is a case where our patient presented with significant pain with 2 teeth but neither the patient or referring Dr. could determine the root cause. Clinical objective testing MUST be done and proper diagnosis cannot be made by looking at an image alone. Significant findings included 1] deep isolate probing between the teeth but moreso when canted towards the posterior tooth (left one) 2] Periradicular bone loss around one of the roots causing a J-shaped appearance 3] Bone loss most extensive at the alveolar crest (green arrow), suggesting that the crack started at the level of the crown and propagated down the root. Upon extraction, the fracture of the root was evident (red arrows). This tooth was extracted and the surgical site was grafted in preparation for a dental implant in the future.