Eruption disturbances of the maxillary incisors: a literature review.

Eruption disturbances can be broadly classified as disturbances related to time and disturbances related to position. Time related disturbances include premature eruption, delayed eruption or impactions. A common feature of these is a significant deviation in eruption time within the established norms for a particular age, sex, race or ethnicity. Although root development represents the fundamental biologic parameter for tooth eruption, chronological age at presentation is used as the first criteria in the establishment of the diagnosis of prematurity or a delay in eruption. Eruption disturbances related to position include ectopic eruption and transpositions. Positional deviations too can cause a delay in eruption time, however more commonly the involved tooth erupts within the expected time frame with an abnormality in position. The focus of this paper is to present a systematic review of the literature including classification, etiology and treatment modalities available for eruption disturbances of the maxillary incisors.