Anatomy Monday: Anterior Superior Alveolar Canal (???)


I’m going to start out this week’s canal as a challenge. I’ve come across two cases recently with canals that appear to be heading towards the maxillary canine. Based on my research and review of anatomy I concluded this was possibly the anterior superior alveolar canal.  After discussing this case with the anatomy instructor here, he suggested an accessory canal for the nasolacrimal canal or a branch of the anterior ethmoid.  If you have any suggestions or are awesome and know exactly what it is, please let me know. Thanks. 🙂

This canal is seen as a vertical radiolucent line with thin radiopaque borders in the area of the maxillary canine.  Being that I don’t see this often (twice that I can recall) I only have this one example. If you have some and would like to share, please send them my way.

anterior superior alveolar canal with arrows anterior superior alveolar canal periapical radiographIf you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. Thanks and enjoy!