O canal gubernacular e a sua relação com a erupção dos dentes e patologias odontogênicas

Abstract

The gubernacular canal is a physiological structure that guides the tooth in the process of eruption. This channel houses the gubernacular cord, which is a fibrous connective tissue containing peripheral nerves, blood vessels, and lymphatics, epithelial cells or aggregates of cells arising from the fragmentation of the dental lamina. It is important that dental surgeons know how to identify such a structure, so that it can assist in planning treatments, diagnosing tumors, cysts and extracting teeth. The objective was to conduct a literature review on the role of the gubernacular canal in the eruption and its influence on the development of odontogenic cysts and tumors. Scientific articles published between 1971 and 2020 on the subject were accessed in the databases Pubmed, Scielo, Medline and Lilacs. It has been observed that any change in the angulation of the gubernacular canal in relation to the tooth axis or if the gubernacular canal is not detectable, may be indicative for an abnormal eruption of permanent teeth. Intact gubernacular channels were detected in almost all odontogenic tumors or cysts and not in non-odontogenic lesions and this allows a differential diagnosis to be established. In addition, there is a relationship between odontogenic epithelium residues present in the canal with the appearance of odontogenic epithelial neoplasms, hamartomas and cysts. The detection of gubernacular canal in mesiodens was significantly inferior to teeth with normal eruption. It was concluded that it is of great importance that dental surgeons are aware of this structure, so that it may be one of the factors that helps in the identification of whether a tooth will have a normal or abnormal eruption and also assist in the differential diagnosis of a tumor or odontogenic cyst and not odontogenic.