Root Resorption

Root resorption has been a fascinating and intriguing entity for dental professionals for many years. It is a dental condition characterized by a physiologic or a pathologic process resulting in the loss of dentin and/or cementum which begins either in the periodontal ligament areas or within the pulpal tissues. Root resorption has generally been divided into two broad categories which are based on where the identified resorptive process has originated from — either internal or external. Bates (1) is credited with an early report of root resorption (“absorption”) which he described in 1856 in the orthodontic literature. In 1894, Gaskill (2) presented one of the earliest case studies on “internal root resorption” describing a central incisor with an internal resorptive lesion with no external opening.