Buccal ectopia of maxillary canines with no crowding.

INTRODUCTION

Buccally displaced canines (BDC) are usually found in crowded dentitions. Nevertheless, a small but significant number of patients with BDC have no crowding. In this study, we compared BDC dentitions with no crowding (BDC-nc), BDC dentitions with crowding (BDC-c), and uncrowded dentitions with normally erupted canines (C).

METHODS

The mesiodistal (MD) widths of maxillary permanent teeth, the prevalence of maxillary lateral incisor anomalies, and the dental age were compared in BDC-nc (n = 30; 17 male, 13 female), BDC-c (n = 41; 21 male, 20 female), and C dentitions (n = 40; 20 male, 20 female).

RESULTS

No differences in the MD dimensions of the teeth in the BDC-nc and C subjects were found; teeth in the BDC-c group were slightly larger. Only the lateral incisor was consistently smaller in the BDC-nc group. The prevalence of lateral incisor anomalies was markedly increased in the BDC-nc (28.3%) compared with the BDC-c (7.6%) and the C (8.6%) groups. No discrepancies were found in dental age.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that, in addition to a genetically based etiology, buccal displacement in BDC-nc subjects might also be the result of lack of guidance from an adjacent anomalous lateral incisor.