Objective This randomized clinical trial aimed to assess the feasibility of computer-assisted
open exposure of palatally impacted canines. Materials and Methods Patients aged 11–30
years who required orthodontic eruption for the full palatal impaction of their canines
were included in this study. Exclusion criteria were psychosocial and dental contraindications
of orthodontic treatment, congenital craniofacial disorders, and trauma in the patient's
history in the vicinity of the surgical site. Virtual planning software was used to
register the intraoral scans and cone-beam computed tomography data and to design
a surgical template. In the test group, exposure of the canines was guided by a surgical
template, whereas in the control group, the surgeon relied on the surgical plan to
localize the impacted canine. The success of the intervention, duration of surgery,
and complications, including excessive hemorrhage, damage to the canine or neighboring
anatomical landmarks, and postoperative inflammation of the surgical site were assessed.
Postoperative pain was reported by the patients using the visual analog pain scale
(VAS). Results Surgery was deemed successful in all patients in both groups. During
healing, no complications were observed. The duration of surgery decreased significantly
in the test group (4 min 45.1 s ± 1 min 8.4 s) compared to that in the control group
(7 min 22.3 s ± 56.02 s). No statistically significant differences were observed between
the VAS scores of the two study groups. Conclusions The application of virtual planning
and static navigation is a viable approach for the open exposure of palatally impacted
canines. Clinical trial registration number NCT05909254 Clinical significance Computer-assisted
surgery is a feasible method for open exposure of palatally impacted canines, which
decreases the duration of surgery compared to the freehand method.
