Prognosis and complications of immature teeth following lateral luxation: A systematic review

Background/AimsLateral luxation injuries are a type of traumatic dental injury in which the tooth becomes displaced in the palatal/lingual or labial direction. This injury is common among children and can result in pulp canal obliteration or pulp necrosis. The objective of this systematic review was to gather existing data on lateral luxation injuries to immature teeth to evaluate their overall prognosis. MethodsA systematic search was conducted using Medline, Pubmed, Scopus, Lilacs, EMBASE and Cochrane databases in October 2017. Reference lists were also hand-searched to identify additional literature. Prospective and retrospective observational studies were included. A total of 502 articles were screened and six articles were included in the study. ResultsPulp canal obliteration was the most frequent complication of immature teeth with lateral luxation (31.3%). This was followed by pulp necrosis (17.5%), inflammatory resorption (5.7%), and surface resorption (3.2%). Due to the heterogeneity of the studies, a meta-analysis was not attempted. There was great variation in the reported outcomes among the studies. ConclusionAccurate prognosis evaluation of traumatic dental injuries is difficult due to the nature of current studies being retrospective or prospective cohort studies. Lateral luxation is a common traumatic dental injury and has life-long concerns for a patient. It is important for future studies to report on the same outcomes to increase the quality of evidence regarding prognosis and treatment interventions, not only for lateral luxation injuries, but for all traumatic dental injuries.