Comparison of the Proposed Treatment Plan Based on the Factors Affecting the Degree of Treatment Difficulty in Impacted Maxillary Canines with Their Definitive Treatment Plan

Determining the exact position of the impacted maxillary canine during its orthodontic treatment using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) can help select the most appropriate treatment plan. The present study aimed to compare the proposed treatment plan for impacted maxillary canines based on the factors affecting the degree of treatment difficulty in impacted maxillary canines with their definitive treatment plan using CBCT.

In this retrospective cross-sectional study, 120 CBCT images were assessed. These images were taken from patients with impacted maxillary canines whose treatments were terminated. To investigate the severity of maxillary canine impaction factors, including the type of impaction, position of canine, distance to the occlusal plane, distance to the midline, and width of follicular space, were measured using CBCT. Ten orthodontists were asked to determine the type of treatment plan proposed for the patient. Then, they determined the degree of difficulty of each measured factors using numbers 1 to 10. Then, the relationship between the specified difficulty number for each factor and the proposed treatment plan was evaluated, and at the end, the relationship between the type of proposed treatment plan and the patient's actual treatment plan was measured.

A total of 26 men and 94 women with a mean age of 18.85 ± 6.5 participated in the present study. A significant relationship was observed between the variables of age, transverse to midline, and the type of impaction, with the type of treatment.

Although the findings of this study showed a low inter-observer agreement on severity degree concerning the width of follicular space, the inter-observer agreement on severity degree with the other factors was high.