It’s all about the journey: Bedford youth receives rare dental transplant
This feature appeared in the January 28, 2026 edition of the Star Valley Independent –
“Mom,” he said in pain and fear over the phone. “My tooth got pulled out!” Kids that age lose teeth all the time, but this was no baby tooth. This was his permanent, right front central incisor. With significant concern, his Aunt Sheri joined the call. “It’s bad, Janet. It’s really bad.”
In the evening sunshine and freedom of Sunday, May 31, 2020, 12-year-old Caleb Erickson and his best friend and cousin, 16-year-old James Erickson, were enjoying the warm weather, dunking a basketball by springing from the full-sized trampoline in James’ front yard in Bedford, which was just a mile from Caleb’s home. This was something the pair did frequently, but this day had something different in store.
As a naturally gifted athlete, Caleb truly loves basketball, football, wrestling and golf. Standing barely five feet tall at that time, he was thrilled by the height he achieved with the aid of the trampoline. Who knows how many times Caleb succeeded before he overshot the hoop and hooked his right front tooth on the rim, which tore the tooth straight out through the front of his gum, leaving a gaping, triangular hole on the right and injuring the incisor on the left.
Caleb’s parents, Bart and Janet Erickson, immediately contacted Dr. Andrew Orton, who had been the family’s dentist since 2010, and made an appointment for Caleb to see Orton the following morning. After checking online for recommended first aid procedures to save the tooth, Janet cleaned Caleb’s tooth and face, speared the tooth back into the inflamed gum, lathered her son’s face and mouth with essential oils, and prayed for the best.
Caleb was in significant pain as he spent the night with a paper towel in his bite to hold the tooth in place. Janet stayed with him much of the night and hoped that the morning would bring good news, but upon examination, Dr. Orton explained that the trauma to Caleb’s gum was so significant that it would never hold the tooth in place and the chance of infection was 100 percent. He recommended an implant.
To the untrained eye, Caleb’s mouth looked like his family was witnessing a miracle. The bleeding had stopped, and the inflammation was significantly reduced. “He looked great! If you didn’t know what had happened, you would never know there was an injury,” said Janet.
Considering Caleb’s young age and his underdeveloped mouth, an implant seemed like a “pointless” choice to the Ericksons, so they worked to protect the tooth for the next year, hoping that they could make it last until Caleb’s mouth was more mature.
By the beginning of his eighth-grade year, however, Caleb’s weakened gum was splitting open, exposing the root of the unstable tooth, and Dr. Orton was concerned about the infection that was likely brewing. Bart and Janet began looking for a gum specialist and learned of Dr. Ethan Moulton at Ridge Crest Periodontics in Idaho Falls.
As Moulton examined Caleb, the Ericksons expected to invest in a surgery to repair Caleb’s gum in addition to addressing any infection or root repair that was deemed necessary. Moulton, however, had an entirely different suggestion, and to the Ericksons’ great surprise, he offered the option of a tooth transplant, clinically called dental autotransplantation.
Moulton explained that he met regularly with a collaborative study group of dental professionals in Idaho Falls, and that “they had been learning about a cutting-edge procedure” used in Europe and Japan “called autotransplantation,” said Janet. “He felt they could take one of Caleb’s developing permanent molars on the lower left of his mouth that had not yet erupted through the gum and move it to the top front, replacing the lost incisor with a natural tooth from his own mouth. He and his study group felt that Caleb was a great candidate for the procedure.”
Giving credit to his colleagues for exploring the idea, Moulton explained autotransplantation as an “innovative dental procedure rarely performed in the United States, offering a young patient a long-term solution that may reduce or even eliminate the need for a future dental implant. Unlike a dental implant, the transplanted tooth has the potential to grow, move, and adapt naturally with the patient—an especially important benefit for children and teenagers whose jaws are still developing.”
his tooth fell out only two weeks before he started high school.
Over the next year, Caleb visited multiple times with two other professionals in the study group. Dr. Jordan Hillam of Hillam Orthodontics and Dr. Val Bingham of Eastern Idaho Endodontics assured the Ericksons that Caleb’s case offered all the right variables to provide a successful procedure. “After extensive planning, including multiple consultations, CT scans, and ongoing collaboration, the team developed a step-by-step treatment plan,” explained Moulton.
“This team was amazing and inspired,” Janet said. “They were knowledgeable, skilled and compassionate. Dr. Hillam explained that autotransplantation was so uncommon in the United States that there had been only five performed in the US at that time, and it was certainly not something that a youth from rural Wyoming would typically have as an option. They were thrilled to be part of this case!”
Caleb and his parents chose to move forward with the procedure. Two weeks before school began in the fall of 2022, as Caleb was entering his freshman year at Star Valley High School, he and his younger brother, Levi, were rough housing on a Sunday afternoon, and Caleb’s fragile gum finally gave out, forever releasing the tooth.
Who wants to begin their freshman year of high school with a missing front tooth? Caleb was somewhat concerned, but Janet was “certain that he would feel self-conscious starting school without a tooth.” Moulton assured her that this was an important step in the process. The tooth needed to be removed anyway to allow for the gum at the transplant site to heal.
Hillam built an interim partial denture, which gave Caleb a fake tooth to begin his high school experience and to allow the gum a healing rest. During the football season, Caleb left his partial in the locker room for practices and games, and his football buddies laughed heartily at the pranks he played on folks who didn’t know that he had a fake tooth.
On October 28, at the conclusion of the 2022 football season, Caleb received the autotransplantation, performed by Moulton, who explained that he “surgically removed an unerupted tooth from the lower jaw and….transferred it—along with supporting bone—to the front of the mouth.”
Once again, Caleb endured significant pain and his wrestling season didn’t begin until January because his care team insisted that his heart rate should not be elevated for several weeks and that he needed to protect the transplant site.
Janet explained that during the following year, Bingham performed some “technically challenging root work” on the transplanted molar and the injured left incisor. Hillam began his “orthodontic magic” to close the gap on the lower left and rotate Caleb’s new front tooth to a more ideal position. Caleb joined the community of teens who wore braces.
During the summer of 2023, Hillam created and installed an addition to the new front tooth, giving it the appearance of a normal incisor. Caleb remained in braces for a full 27 months to bring his teeth as close as possible to an ideal position. June 10, 2025 was his final day in braces and on August 25, Hillam reshaped Caleb’s upper front gum tissue as the final step in his treatment plan.
Throughout the process, Orton, and other dental and orthodontic professionals who have heard Caleb’s story, have watched his progress with genuine wonder. Several times, Hillam and the partners in his practice, who are his father and brothers, have presented Caleb’s case at conferences and trainings events.
“Caleb‘s case is one of the top five most unique cases that I have ever seen,” said Hillam. “His injury as a boy and subsequent dental work that had to be done just to preserve the teeth, combined with the fact that he had an impacted premolar, which is rare by itself” made his case exceptional. With “a little bit of good orthodontic care and a great periodontist, you have a truly remarkable end result with a premolar as a central incisor. Having a natural tooth has major advantages with the periodontal ligament being preserved and the natural shock absorption that comes from that over an implant.”
“I’m just so grateful that we were all able to work together and help Caleb achieve a healthy and handsome smile,” Hillam continued. “It takes a special parent and patient to make this all happen. I’m very honored to be a part of his care and I’m grateful for the trust that both he and [his parents] had in me and the other professionals.”
Bingham feels fortunate to have been part of the collaborative team with Moulton and Hillam “to help Caleb get a great result when traditional methods weren’t available or successful. I appreciate being able to participate in the process. Interdisciplinary
For Moulton, Caleb’s case was personally meaningful as his own youth experiences deeply inspired his career choices. “I had some missing upper front teeth and a broken tooth when I was about Caleb’s age. It was so rewarding to be able to help a young man with a condition similar to mine with a solution that we believe will be a terrific fix for him.”
Humbly grateful for the entire experience, Caleb knows this was a blessing. “I’ve always heard that it’s not about the end result, it’s about the journey and the people you meet along the way. This journey built me as a person and gave me people I can look up to. These doctors are amazing and taught me how to find joy through the rough patches. Even though the destination was the goal, the journey is where I learned the most. It’s so cool to look back and see how everything worked out so well in the end. God had a backup plan for me that was pretty cool.”
