Effectiveness of intentional replantation in managing teeth with apical periodontitis: A systematic review

Intentional replantation (IR) to treat disease of endodontic origin remains controversial. While some clinicians have advocated IR as another valid treatment option, others consider it a last resort treatment procedure. To systematically review and critically evaluate the effectiveness of IR compared with nonsurgical root canal treatment/retreatment or apical surgery in terms of clinical and patient‐related outcomes in managing permanent teeth with apical periodontitis (AP). No comparative study was identified from the literature search. Four longitudinal studies (one prospective and three retrospectives) were identified during the screening of titles and abstracts but were excluded after reading the full text, because only IR was evaluated (single-arm studies). The available evidence on IR is mainly based on observational studies, which reported high overall mid-to-long-term survival, and low complication rates. The results suggest that IR may represent an alternative treatment procedure to solve problems of endodontic origin. However, in the absence of high‐quality evidence from CCTs, clinical decision‐making should be on a case‐by‐case basis and following the clinician's experience and the patient's preference.