Objective: To determine the prevalence of maxillary impacted canines in Egyptian population and its relativity to gender, location, and side distribution. Materials and methods: Retrospective cross-sectional study of 7730 digital panoramic radiographs collected from Alexandria city in Egypt. The sample was examined for the presence of maxillary impacted canines. The radiographs were selected from the records of several private dental clinics and the archive of a radiographic center.
Results: Among the panoramic radiographs analyzed, 229 radiographs had at least one maxillary canine impaction with a prevalence of 2.96%. The percentage of impacted canines in males was 36.24% and in females was 63.76%. A higher number of impactions were seen unilaterally 82.1% than bilaterally 17.9%. Right side impactions (42.79%) were less common than left side impactions (75.1%) in relation to the total number of radiographs with canine impactions. When including the unilateral impactions only, right side impactions were 24.89% while the left side impactions were 57.2%.
Conclusions: The prevalence of maxillary impacted canines in the Egyptian population was found to be 2.96% of the sample collected from Alexandria city which lies within the range reported in other populations. The maxillary canine impactions occurred more in females, unilaterally and on the left side.