Identificación temprana de impactación de caninos maxilares mediante radiografías panorámicas digitales en niños de 6 a 12 años que asisten a las clínicas del niño de la Universidad Santo Tomás seccional Bucaramanga.

Abstract

Introduction: Impaction is a multifactorial disorder that prevents the normal and total eruption of a tooth. The maxillary canines are the teeth with major risk of impaction and panoramic x-rays can be used to identify this pathology. Objective: To determine the early identification of maxillary canine impaction in children between 6 and 12 years of age who attended clinics at the Universidad Santo Tomás of Floridablanca during the period 2018 to 2020. Methodology: An observational, descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted, recording characteristics such as the age, sex and types of dentition of children. In addition, the canine location, Nolla stage, its position and X-rays were used to determine the alpha angle, the beta angle and the cusp distance; measurements were taken from the canine to the occlusal plane, according to the method established by Ericson and Kurol. The tooth was considered to be at risk of impact if it was in position 4 and 5, if the alpha angle was greater than 25°, if the beta angle was greater than 35.6°, or if the distance was greater than 184.6 mm. This study was considered a risk-free research and its implementation was approved by the ethics committee of the Universidad Santo Tomás. Results: 171 panoramic x-rays were evaluated for patients with an average age of 9.3 ± 1.1 years and 56.7% were female. The most common teething was the intertransitional period. For the canines evaluated, the most common nolla stage was 2/3 root with 47.6%. The most common position was 1 with 89.4%. The prevalence of early tooth impaction in children was 16.9% and 10.8% in teeth. Children at risk of tooth impaction were on average 9.7 ± to 1.0 years old while children with no impacted canines were 9.3 ± 1.1 years old (p.=0.059). In addition, most of the impacted teeth were in the second transitional period with 51.7% while no impacted teeth were in the intertransitional period with 66.2% (p=0.010). No major statistically differences were found for sex. Conclusions: The risk of early canines impactions were 10.8%, while in children 16.9%. Age and mix teething period were related to the risk of tooth impaction.