BackgroundThe objective of this study was to assess the incidence, severity and orthodontic treatment difficulty of impacted maxillary canines in Saudi population.Material and MethodsThis retrospective study included an investigation of panoramic radiographs for patients attended College of Dentistry, Jazan University, Saudi Arabia. The incidence of canine impaction and orthodontic treatment difficulty index of maxillary canine impaction was assessed based on; (1) patient age, (2) vertical position, (3) buccolingual position, (4) horizontal position, (5) incisors alignment, (6) canine space, (7) midline coincidence, (8) rotation of impacted tooth. Statistical analyses were calculated by independent Chi-Square test. A P value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.ResultsCanine impaction was found in (1.9%) of the population. Bilateral canine impaction was present in 22.3% of the patient with impacted canines. Ninety two percent had impacted maxillary canines only while 7.5% had impacted maxillary canines with other impacted teeth. The ratio of maxillary to mandibular impaction was about 10:1. Females (69.4%) had more impacted canines than males (30.6%) with no significant sex predilection. Orthodontic treatment difficulty index was statistically significant (P ≤0.05) in males more than females. Males revealed statistically significant (P ≤0.05) difficulty regarding canine angulation and the vertical position while females showed significant difficulty regarding dental midline and incisors irregularity or crowding of incisor segment.ConclusionsPrevalence of maxillary canine impaction in Jazan is within the range of impacted canine in other populations. Females showed more canine impactions than males while the orthodontic treatment difficulty index is more in males than females. Key words:Incidence, Jazan, impaction, maxillary canines, difficulty index.

BackgroundThe objective of this study was to analyse three dimensionally the reliability and correlation of angular and linear measurements in assessment of anteroposterior skeletal discrepancy.Material and MethodsIn this retrospective cross sectional study, a sample of 213 subjects were three-dimensionally analysed from cone-beam computed tomography scans. The sample was divided according to three dimensional measurement of anteroposterior relation (ANB angle) into three groups (skeletal Class I, Class II and Class III). The anterior-posterior cephalometric indicators were measured on volumetric images using Anatomage software (InVivo5.2). These measurements included three angular and seven linear measurements. Cross tabulations were performed to correlate the ANB angle with each method. Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) test was applied for the difference between the two reliability measurements. P value of < 0.05 was considered significant.ResultsThere was a statistically significant (P<0.05) agreement between all methods used with variability in assessment of different anteroposterior relations. The highest correlation was between ANB and DSOJ (0.913), strong correlation with AB/FH, AB/SN/, MM bisector, AB/PP, Wits appraisal (0.896, 0.890, 0.878, 0.867,and 0.858, respectively), moderate with AD/SN and Beta angle (0.787 and 0.760), and weak correlation with corrected ANB angle (0.550).ConclusionsConjunctive usage of ANB angle with DSOJ, AB/FH, AB/SN/, MM bisector, AB/PP and Wits appraisal in 3D cephalometric analysis provide a more reliable and valid indicator of the skeletal anteroposterior relationship. Clinical relevance: Most of orthodontic literature depends on single method (ANB) with its drawbacks in assessment of skeletal discrepancy which is a cardinal factors for proper treatment planning, this study assessed three dimensionally the degree of correlation between all available methods to make clinical judgement more accurate based on more than one method of assessment. Key words:Anteroposterior relationships, ANB angle, Three-dimension, CBCT.

BackgroundTo evaluate the position and inclination of maxillary and mandibular incisors in adults with different anteroposterior and vertical skeletal malocclusions.Material and MethodsIn this retrospective study, lateral cephalometry of 272 adults (134 males and 138 females) who met the selection criteria were digitally analyzed. They were classified based on both linear and angular measurements, anterioposteriorly into skeletal Class I, Class II and Class III and vertically into hypodivergent, normodivergent and hyperdivergent individuals. Sixteen linear and angular measurements were used to assess both positions and inclinations of maxillary base, mandibular base, maxillary incisors, mandibular incisors, and inter-incisors relationship. Descriptive statistics were calculated and presented. The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was applied for the reliability of measurements. Pearson correlation was used to present the degree of correlation between all variables. A P value of < 0.05 was considered significant.ResultsThere was a significant correlation between anteroposterior skeletal discrepancy and maxillary and mandibular dentoalveolar compensation (P<0.001). There was significant correlation between vertical skeletal discrepancy and maxillary and mandibular dentoalveolar compensation except for maxillary incisor position. Anterioposterior skeletal jaw position had greater significant effect on the dentoalveolar changes than the vertical skeletal jaw inclination did with variant degree.ConclusionsThere may be an association between dentoalveolar changes and the skeletal anteroposterior and vertical positions, inclinations and intermaxillary relation. Key words:Dentoalveolar compensation, anteroposterior, vertical, skeletal malocclusions, Cephalometry.