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Background: Even though periodontal health was suggested to be not related to the traction technique, some other variables might influence the esthetic outcome of palatally displaced canines (PDC) when aligned, such as the initial position and impaction rate of the canine before treatment. The purpose of the present study was therefore to evaluate the existing correlations between periodontal health outcome of PDC after their exposure and alignment and their initial position identified according to the different rates of impaction severity., Materials and Methods: The final sample enrolled 293 PDC which satisfied inclusion and exclusion criteria. All the canines were exposed using CT by the same oral surgeon and orthodontic traction was applied using the easy cuspid device followed by fixed appliance treatment. Image analysis and periodontal status evaluation were performed for all PDCs., Results: α-Angle and d-distance showed no significant differences in the periodontal outcome of PDCs after treatment. The only tested variable showing significant differences was S, since canines with CEJ visible at the end of the treatment presented sectors with a mean score of 1.67, which was significantly different (P < 0.05) when compared to the S-sector for the canines that showed PD < 2 mm at the end of the treatment., Conclusions: Radiographic variables as α-Angle and d-distance seem to not influence the periodontal outcome of the treated impacted canine regardless of the amount of gravity. On the contrary, S-sector might play a significant role when higher rates of gravity are present suggesting the possibility in few cases for periodontal damage at the end of treatment.

Objectives: To propose a treatment protocol for the management of impacted second molars., Materials and Methods: Patients were randomly divided into two equal groups (20 patients in each). The patients in the first group underwent a surgical removal of the mucosa covering retained teeth; the second group was the control group and patients were not treated but only observed. The total number of retained teeth considered were 66 (34 in the first group and 32 in the control group). A Chi squared test has been performed to compare the prevalence of eruption in the two groups. We compared the frequency of eruption for the treatment compared to the control group by calculating the risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI)., Results: Eruption occurred in 32 teeth after surgical removal of the mucosa while in the control group only 3 teeth erupted in the considered period. The difference between the two groups showed statistically significant. Among the non erupted teeth, 20 were positioned with a mesial inclination and 12 were positioned vertically., Conclusions: The results show that the removal of the mucosa covering teeth allows in several cases second molars to erupt. It's a conservative method which doesn't exclude the possibility of a successive different therapy. Therefore it must be considered among the treatment options during treatment planning., (Copyright © 2011 Società Italiana di Ortodonzia SIDO. Published by Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Prediction of third molar eruption carries significant prognostic importance. There have been various reports of methods to predict the probability of impaction of these teeth. We studied the level of agreement between these three prediction methods., Materials and Methods: a total of 61 patients, mean age 16.4+/-0.98, of Italian origin with initially retained 121 lower third molars were selected for this study. Panoramic radiographs were taken on each subject. For each third molar, the prognosis of eruption was assessed by three different cephalometric techniques: Olive, Ganss, Venta. The Kappa coefficient was used to compare results between the 3 methods (pairwise agreement) for each individual molar, the McNemar test to assess pairwise imbalance., Results: a weak agreement was found between Ganss and Olive, fair between Venta and Ganss and between Olive and Venta. Additionally, the statistical analyses revealed a significant imbalance within the pairwise comparisons., Conclusions: the three methods were not found to be reliable or accurate; perhaps, the method of Castella et al. holds better promise.