A cone-beam computed tomography study of the root and root canal morphology of maxillary first premolars in young Peruvians

Abstract

Introduction: Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is an important diagnostic tool today as it allows the evaluation of the internal structures of hard tissues. This study investigated the internal root morphology of the maxillary first premolars by CBCT in a population of young Peruvians. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional, retrospective, observational, descriptive study, in which CBCT of 307 scans from patients fulfilling the selection criteria were evaluated. External and internal anatomical characteristics were evaluated in sagittal, coronal, and axial sections at different levels of the root portion, and tooth location and gender were recorded. Results: Only 52.1% presented one root and 49.2% presented two canals. In the analysis of internal morphology according to the Vertucci classification, type IV was the most frequent, with 39.4% in both men and women, being 41.4% on the right side and 37.4% on the left side. Similarly, type IV was significantly more frequent in men (51.1%) than women (30.5%). The most frequent number of roots was one root, and the number of canals was 2 (49.2%), followed by one canal (47.9%) and three canals (2.9%). Conclusions: The maxillary first premolars showed a predominance of one root and two canals, and the most frequent internal root morphology was Vertucci type IV in both the left and right sides in both genders.