Treat & Manage: Impacted Maxillary Canine and Overcome Reabsorption Issue

Canine impaction is a common occurrence, and clinicians must be prepared to manage it. With early
detection, timely interception and well-managed surgical and orthodontic treatment, impacted maxillary canines can be erupted and guided to an appropriate location in the dental arch.¹ Maxillary canines are the most commonly impacted teeth² and maxillary canine impaction occurs in approximately two percent of the population and is twice as common in females as it is in males.^3,4,5

Treating palatally displaced or impacted maxillary canine teeth presents a difficult problem and left untreated can cause some serious consequences for adjacent teeth. Resorption of lateral incisors is three times as common in girls as in boys. The resorption cases show a more advanced dental development, a more medial canine position in the dental arch, and a slightly more mesial horizontal path of eruption.

Potential resorption cases are always those in which the canine cusp in periapical and panoramic films is positioned medially to the midline of the lateral incisor. The risk of resorption also will increase with a more mesial horizontal path of eruption.