Dentoalveolar surgery
What Are the Histologic Effects of Surgical and Orthodontic Treatment on the Gingiva of Palatal Impacted Canines?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joms.2015.07.002Get rights and content

Purpose

To histologically evaluate changes in the marginal gingiva of palatal impacted maxillary canines after surgical exposure and orthodontic treatment.

Materials and Methods

A prospective case-and-control study was conducted of 10 patients presenting with bilateral palatal impaction of the maxillary canines. All patients underwent surgical exposure of the impacted canines with an open-window technique, which was followed by orthodontic treatment to achieve proper arch alignment. Once the treatment was finalized, 4 samples of marginal gingival tissue from each patient were taken for histologic study. The 4 samples consisted of 1 from each of the repositioned maxillary canines (case teeth) and 1 from each of their respective adjacent first premolars (control teeth).

Results

Histologic examination of the case teeth tissue samples showed microscopic changes mainly in the nonkeratinized epithelium and connective tissue, whereas changes in the keratinized epithelium remained minimal. The control teeth showed a greater inflammatory reaction in the nonkeratinized epithelium.

Conclusion

Orthodontic treatment of impacted maxillary canines used in conjunction with an open-window surgical technique results in predictable orthodontic eruption with few periodontal discrepancies of the marginal gingiva compared with their adjacent first premolars.

Section snippets

Material and Methods

A prospective case-and-control study was conducted using 10 patients. After approval from the ethics committee of the University of Seville (2014PI/096; Seville, Spain) and after informed consent was obtained, all patients underwent surgically assisted orthodontic treatment for their bilateral, palatal impacted maxillary canines. The case group consisted of the orthodontic repositioned (aligned) maxillary canines and the control group consisted of the nonsurgically assisted erupted, adjacent

Results

Histologic differences for the marginal gingiva between the surgically assisted orthodontic-treated (aligned) maxillary canines (case group; Table 2) and adjacent first premolars (control group) were present mainly at the level of the nonkeratinized epithelium and connective tissue. Changes at the level of the keratinized epithelium remained minimal.

In the case group (aligned maxillary canines), the keratinized and nonkeratinized epithelium presented a larger number of papillae compared with

Discussion

The physiologic movements that naturally occur during tooth eruption differ from those generated during orthodontic treatment. Although physiologic tooth movement is a slow process, the pace of movement generated by orthodontic traction can vary greatly depending on the physical characteristics of the forces applied and the response of the periodontal ligament to such forces. Several studies have found increased levels of prostaglandins in the periodontal ligament soon after the application of

References (17)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (5)

View full text
Copyright © 2015 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.