Clinical Implications Of Taurodontism

Why Is Taurodontism Clinically Important?

Teeth that are affected by taurodontism will behave as any other tooth as long as everything is fine. Theoretically, a person would never even come to know that one or more of the teeth are different than the other one if they remain disease free throughout life.

Unfortunately, that is rarely the case. The thin covering of enamel and dentin means that the tooth is less insulated from the temperature changes that take place in the mouth. Patients will often complain of increased sensitivity with those teeth even though they look perfectly okay on visual inspection.

The molars are the most common teeth affected by taurodontism. They are also the most common teeth to suffer from tooth decay due the presence of grooves on their surface as well as having the largest surface area of all the teeth.

This combination is a not good one since even a small amount of tooth decay will lead to the pulp exposure. Some of the symptoms associated with such an occurrence will include severe pain, an inability to bite from that tooth, the increased possibility of fracture and referred pain to the nearby areas.

Since the crown of the teeth is increased greatly in size at the expense of the roots, they are at a disadvantage in being resistant to gum disease. The nature of gum disease is such that it does not cause pain and is often ignored by the patient until the disease has progressed to an advanced stage.

Often in the case of taurodontism affected teeth, the disease progresses so quickly that by the time the patient realizes there is a problem, nothing can be done to save the tooth.

It is also much more difficult to provide root canal treatment to the affected teeth. It has been fond that the roots of taurodontism affected teeth are often partially obliterated or calcified making access to all parts of the pulp very difficult. Even the openings of the roots into the canal are located at positions different from the normal and thus require the removal of a lot more tooth structure to uncover all the canal openings.

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Gum surgeries that can be used to try and save the tooth are also much more limited in scope. Thus, extraction becomes the only choice.

This too can be a slightly more complicated procedure since the tooth is likely to crack under the force exerted during extraction, however, that is a minor concern and something that the doctor needs to worry about rather than the patient.

Conclusion

 Taurodontism is a relatively rare condition which will be diagnosed in most cases when the tooth needs some form of treatment. It is important to know why some of the treatment options are not available to you or why they may not have the same success rate as in other cases.

The maintenance of oral hygiene for patients with taurodontism becomes even more important and a stricter follow-up protocol should be followed in case the teeth are diagnosed during a routine examination.