Case of Horizontally Impacted Maxillary Primary Central Incisor Causing Eruption Disorder of Permanent Successor

Abstract

Impaction of deciduous teeth is an unusual finding and that of deciduous incisors is more rarely found, with the number of reported cases very limited. The cause of impaction of a permanent incisor can be easily identified in most cases. Injury to and/or apical lesions of the deciduous processor will affect the successor permanent tooth, and change of eruption direction and avoidance of the apical lesion by the successor tooth germ is often noted. On the other hand, there are many uncertainties about deciduous tooth impaction. For example, the presence or absence of past trauma is difficult to precisely determine, and it is also difficult to verify that an indirect injury force through the gingiva can change the position or eruption direction of an unerupted deciduous tooth. Additionally, impaction of a deciduous incisor, even after its extraction, requires management of space and erupting disturbance in permanent predecessors. Here, we report a case of horizontal impaction of the maxillary left deciduous central incisor that disturbed the positioning of permanent incisor germs and caused malalignment of permanent denti tion. In addition, we discuss the cause of impaction including treatment planning by referring to previous reports.