## 5 Discussion
[38], discussed a root fracture in a maxillary primary incisor treated with elastic splinting (orthodontic wire and composite) for a prolonged duration of 120 days, with no complications observed in the primary tooth until the eruption of the subsequent permanent central incisor, which also exhibited favorable outcomes [38]. However, it is important to note that maintaining a composite material splint alone in this age range can be challenging due to frequent detachments. As a result, a realistic time limit for splint duration is around 60 days. Regarding the time interval between trauma and splinting, in this study, samples exhibited considerable variation. In Group 1, the splint was consistently applied more than two hours after the trauma but before midnight. Notably, the absence of necrosis and the infrequent occurrence of local complications (early tooth loss) were observed in this group. Conversely, in Group 2, splinting was often performed within two hours of the trauma. However, despite the prompt intervention, the present group experienced a higher number of premature losses among the traumatized elements, indicating that early intervention alone did not significantly improve the prognosis of teeth affected by root fractures. Furthermore, in this study atypical resorption of the apical fragment was identified, which was observed radiographically shortly after the initial trauma in some patients within the samples [39]. This phenomenon has received limited discussion and investigation in the scientific literature, as it exhibits distinct characteristics common both to physiological and pathological resorption. Atypical root resorption (ARR), also referred to as irregular, lunate, or circumferential root resorption, manifests as a radiographic finding primarily seen in maxillary central deciduous incisors. [PERSON] et al. defined it as \"superficial resorption\" along the lateral or apical margins of the root (associated with previous dental traumas demonstrating a peripheral circumferential resorption pattern) and can be classified into four different patterns: types I, II, III, and IV [37; 40]. In the examined sample, the occurrence of apical resorption was observed homogeneously among both orthodontically splinted teeth (Group 1) and those instead not subjected to orthodontic splinting (Group 2). Radiographically, this phenomenon could be first detected within 6 months of the injury and was typically completed within 12 to 18 months. Therefore, it could be asserted that this type of resorption is characteristic and pathognononic of root fractures in deciduous teeth, regardless of the type of splinting employed. These findings were in line with the retrospective study by [PERSON] et al. [14], which emphasized that splinting cannot be considered a primary cause of root resorption in deciduous teeth with root fracture. Supporting the suggested hypothesis of this present study, the longitudinal observational study conducted by [PERSON] et al. could be mentioned [39], which involved six patients with root fractures of maxillary deciduous incisors. In all six cases, regardless of the treatment approach chosen, this type of root resorption occurred without any associated pulp pathology, leading the authors to confirm that ARR represented a distinct healing process in deciduous root fractures that could be observed in long-term follow-up. Statistical analysis further reinforced that the occurrence of this resorption event did not significantly differ between the two groups, affirming the authors' hypothesis that ARR still transpired irrespective of the type of splinting employed. Furthermore, another notable case, reported by [PERSON] et al. [41], highlighted the combined conservative management of extrusion and root fracture in a maxillary deciduous central incisor that exhibited root resorption in the apical fragment characteristic of ARR after 12 months. Lastly, a recent scoping review conducted by [PERSON] et al.