Relationship between upper lateral incisors anomalies and palatal displaced canine: a case-control retrospective study

Background: An observational case-control study was designed to retrospectively assess the association among sex, skeletal and dental variables and the and the palatal maxillary canine impaction. Methods: The STROBE guidelines were followed. The records of 2195 subjects were analyzed. The data records of subjects with palatally displaced canine (PDC) were compared with the data of randomly selected subjects without PDC. Descriptive statistics, logistic regression model and χ2 test were used. Resultlts: One hundred and one subjects presented at least one PDC; 106 subjects without PDC were randomly selected. From the logistic model, it was found that only gender and persistence of the deciduous canine were significantly associated with PDC. The Chi-square test showed a correlation between the presence of upper lateral incisor anomalies and PDC, otherwise, considering the unilateral impaction, there was no statistically significant difference in the relationship between canine impaction and the presence of the lateral incisor anomalies, on the same or opposite side of the impaction. Conclusions: The female sex and the persistence of maxillary deciduous canines are associated with PDC. The anomalies of the lateral incisor do not seem to play a mechanistic role, but could rather represent a genetic variable of the canine eruption disorder.