Comparative Evaluation of Radiographic Techniques for the Localization of Impacted Maxillary Canine

Abstract

The maxillary canine being the last anterior tooth to erupt in the oral cavity, is commonly impacted and the reasons for which are multifocal. It is necessary to locate the position of the impacted tooth in order to carry out a proper treatment plan. Various clinical and radiologic methods have been carried out to localize the position of the impacted tooth. The most commonly used methods include the parallax / tube shift, right angle technique, occlusal and the panoramic radiographs. This article reviews the various radiographic techniques and summarizes the current literature about the localization of impacted maxillary canine. This study confirms that the single panoramic radiograph is adequate to localize the position of the impacted maxillary canine, provided that both the magnification index and the vertical restriction criteria are used.

Keywords

• impacted canine
• parallax
• occlusal millimeter
• magnification index
• vertical restriction criteria
• panoramic radiograph.