The prevalence of lateral incisor hypodontia and canine impaction in Croatian population.

The study investigates the prevalence of second incisor hypodontia and canine impaction in Croatia. The study of incisor hypodontia encompassed 568 examinees (229 boys, 339 girls) aged 6-22 (X = 11.2, SD = 2.8) while for canine impaction, a subsample of 170 examinees older than 13 years was formed (68 boys and 102 girls). The participants were non-selected ambulatory patients of the Dental Clinic Zagreb and the School of Dental Medicine, University of Zagreb who voluntarily participated in the study. Investigated anomalies were registered from panoramic x-rays and dental records and a tooth was diagnosed as congenitally missing when no crown mineralization could be identified on dental panoramic tomogram and no evidence of extraction was found. For each examinee, the final dental panoramic tomogram evaluation was performed at the age of 13 years. Missing lateral incisors are found in 14 out of 568 participants, indicating the prevalence of 2.46%. With the M : F ratio 1 : 6, sex-specific prevalence are 0.87% and 3.54% for males and females respectively. The prevalence of missing lateral incisor is 1.76% in maxilla and 0.70% in mandible. The sex specific pattern as well as overall prevalence of lateral incisor hypodontia is within the range reported in other studies. On the other hand, the findings of bilaterally missing lateral incisor in six out of 14 examinees (or in 42.86% of hypodontia) is certainly the specificity of the here investigated population. The additional peculiarity is the finding of the bilateral aplasia of mandible canines registered in one child. Canine impaction is found in 8 participants of the present study (4.71%) and in all cases it was placed in maxilla. No sex specific differences in prevalence of impactions are found. In one case (or in 12.5%) a canine impaction is found bilaterally. Missing lateral incisors and canine impaction in the same examinee was not found in this study.