You will be presented with the full text of a biomedical research paper. Please write an abstract for this paper. Your response should include the abstract and no additional text.

Paper text:
impaction of canine teeth is a well - documented phenomenon , particularly in the recent literature .
the occurrence of maxillary canine impaction is considerable and its frequency increases with other genetically associated dental anomalies .
possible causes may include one or more of the following local factors and systemic conditions : inadequate space for eruption or early loss of primary canines ; abnormal position of the tooth bud ; the presence of an alveolar cleft , a cystic lesion , or neoplasm ; ankylosis ; dilacerations of the root ; an iatrogenic or idiopathic cause ; endocrine deficiencies ; malnutrition ; fever ; or irradiation [ 25 ] .
suggested that palatal canine impaction is genetic in origin , whereas labial impaction is due to inadequate arch space .
numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the incidence and prevalence of impacted maxillary canines in different populations [ 711 ] .
impacted canines are more commonly seen in female than in male patients , and there is wide variation among different racial populations [ 12 , 13 ] .
both the maxillary and mandibular canines may be impacted , although maxillary canine impaction is considerably more common [ 3 , 4 , 14 ] .
unilateral impaction is more prevalent than bilateral impaction [ 24 ] , and impaction is ~50 times more frequent in the palate than in the buccal vestibule [ 3 , 4 , 10 ] .
however , despite information from other ethnic groups , studies on impacted maxillary canines have not yet been performed in kosovo .
the purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of impacted maxillary canines in a kosovar population .
this study was conducted on a kosovar population that had been treated in the oral surgery department at the university dentistry clinical center of kosovo from august 2001 to february 2004 .
these records were examined to reveal any evidence of impacted maxillary canines ( i.e. , visual inspection , palpation , and/or radiographs ) .
clinical examination was done by conventional methods and included whole - arch inspection ; palpation to identify any retained deciduous canine ; visualization of the canine  bulge ,  splaying of the lateral incisors , lost space , crowding , or fibrous tissue overlying the canine region , and mobility of the primary canines ; and a review of the patient 's chronological age and history of dental eruption / exfoliation patterns . according to ericson and kurol
, clinical examination should be supplemented with a radiographic evaluation to produce an accurate diagnosis .
panoramic radiographs were taken using a planmeca 2002 cc proline ( helsinki , finland ) using kodak dental films ( t - mate ; kodak , new york , usa ) .
other radiographs , including anterior occlusal radiographs , were used to determine the position of the impacted canine by parallaxing .
these were acquired using a philips x - ray machine ( philips medical systems , london , uk ) with kodak dental films ( kodac e - speed plus ) .
all films were processed in a xr-24 nova machine ( durr dental , bietigheim , germany ) using durr dental developer and fixer .
all radiographs were placed on a viewing screen and the area surrounding the radiographs was shielded with a dark material to block interfering lateral light and improve viewing contrast .
the chi - squared test was used to reveal any differences in the distribution of impacted maxillary canines when stratified by gender , age , location ( left or right ) , and position
from the 8101 patients , 131 ( 1.62% ) were found to have impacted maxillary canines . of these ,
101 were female and 30 were male , which was a statistically significant difference ( p < 0.0001 ) ( table 1 ) .
ages were in the range of 9 to > 20 years , with a mean age of 24.38  8.09 years ( table 2 ) . in 99 patients ( 75.57% ) , we found unilateral impaction , whereas the remaining 32 ( 24.43% ) were bilateral ( table 3 ) .
this difference was also statistically significant ( p < 0.0001 ) . among the 99 unilaterally impacted canines , 57 were on the left side and 42 were on the right side . in 92 cases ( 70.2% of total ) ,
the impacted tooth was palatally positioned ( class i , according to the classification of archer ) .
seventy - five of these were in a semivertical position , whereas 11 and 6 were in vertical and horizontal positions , respectively .
a further 18 canines ( 13.7% of total ) were labially positioned ( class ii ) , with nine being semivertical and seven being in a vertical position ( figures 1 and 2 ) .
there were 15 cases ( 11.5% of total ) in which the crown of the impacted canine was palatally positioned but the root extended between the adjacent teeth to end labially ( class iii ) .
five canines ( 3.8% ) were impacted within the alveolar process in a vertical position between the incisors and first premolars ( class iv ) .
finally , there was a single case of an ectopic canine ( class v ) ( figure 1 ) .
the chi - squared test revealed that the proportion of impacted canines in each position was statistically significantly different ( chi - test = 283 , p < 0.00001 ) .
comparison of the results from this study with those reported previously is complex because of differences in sample size , grouping methods , clinical examination methods , and the radiographic techniques used to make the diagnosis .
however , numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the incidence and prevalence of impacted maxillary canines in different populations .
the prevalence of maxillary canine impaction appears to vary within a range of 0.93.5% , depending on the population examined [ 7 , 8 , 11 , 14 , 17 ] . in our study , the overall incidence of impacted maxillary canines was 1.6% , suggesting that ethnicity and geographic location have little influence on the incidence of maxillary canine impaction .
female patients have been reported to be more commonly affected [ 1721 ] , and our results support this conclusion , with a female  :  male ratio of 3  :  1 .
it is possible that this higher frequency in female patients is associated with the smaller cranium in female patients , which may lead to diminution of the facial skeleton   and the jaws .
other authors have hypothesized that the higher female incidence may simply reflect a trend whereby female patients are more likely to seek orthodontic treatment and thus have their impacted canines discovered [ 7 , 22 ] .
most of the studies published on impacted maxillary canines have dealt with characteristics of unilateral impactions [ 17 , 18 , 23 ] , although others conclude that bilateral impaction is more usual .
our findings are in line with previous results suggesting that unilateral impaction is more prevalent than bilateral .
in a european population , palatal canine impaction was around five times more frequent than in an asian population .
in contrast , kim et al .   argue that there is a threefold greater tendency for labial impaction in a korean population .
these differences likely relate , at least in part , to racial differences in jaw bone structure .
the report by zhong et al .   strongly supports this opinion , finding that the chinese also exhibit a greater prevalence of labial impactions ( 2.1 times more than palatal ) . in the present study ,
this finding is comparable to previous reports evaluating the positional distribution of impacted maxillary canines [ 19 , 26 ] .
the prevalence of the impacted maxillary canine has been investigated extensively elsewhere , but never in a kosovar population .
the present study found a relatively high frequency of impacted maxillary canines in a kosovar population .
however , the study has several limitations , including difficulty in comprehensively tracing every appropriate dental record , note , and orthopantomographs .
further studies are likely to be required to identify the etiology behind the high prevalence of impacted maxillary canine teeth in kosovar subjects .
this present study concluded thatthe incidence of impacted maxillary canines was 1.6%;the most affected gender of impacted maxillary canines is the female;the impaction had occurred more unilaterally than in both sides;the most frequent location of impacted canines was palatal .
the incidence of impacted maxillary canines was 1.6% ; the most affected gender of impacted maxillary canines is the female ; the impaction had occurred more unilaterally than in both sides ; the most frequent location of impacted canines was palatal .
aim . 
 the purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of impacted maxillary canines in a kosovar population . 
 materials and methods . 
 the study consisted of a retrospective analysis of the records of 8101 patients treated in the university dentistry clinical center of kosovo between august 2001 and february 2004 . 
 the chi - squared test was used to examine potential differences in the distribution of impacted maxillary canines stratified by gender , age , location ( left or right ) , and position . 
 p < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant . results . 
 it was found that the incidence of impacted maxillary canines was 1.62% . 
 of the 131 impacted maxillary canines , 101 were in female patients and 30 were in male patients , a statistically significant difference . 
 ages were in the range of 9 to > 20  years , with a mean age of 24.38  8.09  years . of these subjects , 99 ( 75.57% ) 
 had unilaterally impacted maxillary canines , while 32 ( 24.43% ) had bilateral impactions , a statistically significant difference ( p < 0.00002 ) . impacted canines in 92 subjects ( 70.2% ) were palatally placed , and 18 ( 13.7% ) were labially placed . 
 this difference was also statistically significant ( p < 0.00001 ) . 
 conclusion . 
 the incidence of impacted maxillary canines in the sample kosovar population was 1.62% , which is comparable to the findings from previous studies .