Abstract
Objective: To investigate the prevalence of maxillary canine impaction and whether the impacted canine cases have had a potentially good or poor prognosis if interceptive treatment was practiced at earlier ages. Material and Methods: 1755 panoramic radiographs of patients, aged 13 to 60 years, attending the University of Babylon, College of Dentistry for the period from November 2016 to July 2018 were collected and assessed for the presence of impacted maxillary canines. Subsequently, four suggested prognostic factors for each impacted canine were analyzed and recorded. Results: The prevalence of maxillary canine impaction was 119 (6.78%) with 89 unilateral impaction and 30 bilateral impaction resulting in a total of 149 impacted canines. Regarding the gender, impaction was more evident in females 70 than in males 49 with no statistical significant difference. For the side, impaction was more prevalent on the left (77) than on the right (72), also with no statistical difference (p>0.05). Following the analysis of the four prognostic factors, most of the cases, 117 (78.5%) had at least one prognostic factor to be poor. Although 82 (55%) of the cases had at least one prognostic factor to be good, only 4 had all the prognostic factors to be good. Conclusion: Although the cases that had a potentially good prognosis were little (4 cases), interceptive extraction of primary canines would mostly be beneficial for these patients as it will minimize the treatment time, cost and complications.