European Journal of Anatomy

Official Journal of The Spanish Society of Anatomy
Cover Volume 24 - Number 6
Eur J Anat, 24 (6): 485-490 (2020)

Evaluation of gubernacular tract with cone beam computed tomography in impacted supernumerary teeth

Fatma A. Kaplan1, Elif Bilgir1, İbrahim Ş. Bayrakdar1, Münevver Ã?. Kılıç2

1Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Eskisehir-Turkey2Atatürk University, Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Erzurum-Turkey

ABSTRACT The gubernacular canal or gubernacular tract is filled by the gubernacular cord, which includes fi-brous connective tissue containing peripheral nerves, blood and lymphatic ducts besides the epi-thelial cells from the fragmented dental laminae, including epithelial growth factor. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the gubernacular tract in unerupted supernumerary teeth by cone beam computed tomography. Sixty-four unerupted su-pernumerary teeth were selected from 44 patients (21 females, 23 males, 12-68 years). Gubernacu-lar tract characteristics were evaluated in five dif-ferent groups: No alteration, bending of gubernac-ular tract, contraction of gubernacular tract, oblite-rations of gubernacular tract, difference between erupted direction. Unerupted supernumerary teeth were classified according to their position. The presence and characteristics of the gubernacular tract in the supernumerary teeth were evaluated by cone beam computed tomography.In our study, the frequency of the gubernacular tract was found to be 31.7%. There was no signifi-cant difference between the presence of gubernac-ular tract and gender, age and gubernacular tract characteristics. It was found that gubernaculartract characteristics did not change according to gender, quadrant, age and unerupted positions. Cone beam computed tomography is an efficient method for the evaluation of the gubernacular tract in unerupted supernumerary teeth. Conducting these studies in larger populations will provide more detailed information about the prognosis of impacted supernumerary teeth.

Keywords: Cone beam computed tomography â?? Gubernacular canal â?? Gubernacular tract â?? Supernumerary teeth

European Journal of anatomy
ISSN 2340-311X (Online)