Investigation of the Relationship of Impacted Maxillary Canines with Orthodontic Malocclusion: A Retrospective Study

Impacted canines, which play an important role in smile aesthetics and functional occlusion, can lead to dental and skeletal malocclusions. In this study the aim was to evaluate the relationship between impacted maxillary canines and malocclusion. A total of 151 patients comprising 101 females and 50 males aged between 13 and 33 years were included. The groups were divided based on age, gender, skeletal and dental classification, and sector classification. Angular and linear measurements were performed on lateral cephalometric and panoramic radiographs. In panoramic radiographs, the vertical distance of the impacted canine to the occlusal plane and the angle between it and the bicondylar plane were measured and sector classification was performed according to its relationship with the root of the lateral incisor. Skeletal classification was performed according to the ANB angle on lateral cephalometric radiographs and dental classification by molar relationship via the intraoral photographs. The Chi-square test analyzed independent qualitative and quantitative data using Kruskal-Wallis and Man-Whitney U tests. The statistical significance level was accepted as p < 0.05. According to the intraclass correlation test, an excellent positive correlation was found with 0.985 for canine distance and 0.993 for canine angle between the repeated measurements. The impaction of the maxillary right canine was significantly highest in females and lowest in males. The impacted canine angle was significantly highest in sector 1 and lowest in sector 4. Distance to the occlusal plane was significantly higher in dental Class II and sector 4. It was observed that there was a considerable relationship between impacted maxillary canines and malocclusion; bilateral impacted canines were more frequent in skeletal Class III, and the distance of impacted canines to the occlusal plane increased while their angles decreased both in dental Class II and from sectors 1 to 4.