title: Etiology of maxillary canine impaction: a review.
abstract: This article is a review that enumerates the causes of impaction of the maxillary permanent canines, including hard tissue obstructions, soft tissue lesions, and anomalies of neighboring teeth, and discusses the much-argued relationship between environmental and genetic factors. These phenomena have been shown in many investigations to accompany the diagnosis of canine impaction and have been presented as unrelated anomalous features, each of which is etiologically construed as genetic, including the aberrant canine itself. While in general the influence of genetics pervades the wider picture, a guidance theory proposes an alternative etiologic line of reasoning and interpretation of these studies, in which the same genetically determined anomalous features provide an abnormal milieu in which the canine is reared and from which it is guided in its misdirected and often abortive path of eruption.
authors.affiliation: Clinical associate professor emeritus, Department of Orthodontics, Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel. Electronic address: adrian.becker@mail.huji.ac.il.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.affiliation: Full professor and chair, Department of Orthodontics, Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Stella
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chaushu
mesh_terms: D003481:Cuspid / Q000473:pathology*; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D006801:Humans; D008437:Maxilla / Q000473:pathology; D009805:Odontogenesis / Q000502:physiology; D014078:Tooth Eruption / Q000502:physiology; D014095:Tooth, Impacted / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics