Gray value measurement for the evaluation of local alveolar bone density around impacted maxillary canine teeth using...

To investigate whether any relationship between local alveolar bone density and maxillary canine impaction using gray values from cone beam computed tomography.

The cone beam computed tomography images of 151 patients were retrospectively evaluated. Maxillary canine was defined as an impacted tooth when root formation was complete and the patient's age older than 13 or the other side of the maxillary canine has completely erupted. Similarly, complete eruption was defined as the tooth in its expected occlusion and position. Using the cone beam computed tomography software, the region of interest which was 5 mm2 in area, was placed in the trabecular bone on cross sectional cone beam computed tomography images and the gray value measurements were recorded. After measuring the gray values of all the teeth, the images were grouped according to the field of view size. Comparison of the gray values of impacted and non-impacted teeth was made between images with the same field of view size.

A total of 151 patients, 101 (66.9%) female and 50 (33.1%) male, were included in the study. The mean age of the patients was 24.94 ±13.9. In images with a 40X40 field of view, the gray values of the impacted canine teeth were higher than the gray values of the non-impacted ones and statistically significant difference was found between them (p=0.003). However no statistically significant difference was found between the gray values of impacted and non-impacted canine teeth in 60x60 and 100x50 field of view (p=0.197, p=0.170, respectively).

We suggest using the smallest field of view size when evaluating bone density using gray values from cone beam computed tomography images and we support the idea that the local increased bone density may influence on impaction.