Ismael Valenzuela M.; Rosario Lagos F. & Reinaldo Soto N.

The incisive canal is an anatomical bone structure that, according to current anatomical terminology, is located exclusively in the premaxilla. However, following the mandibular canals, the mental canals (containing the neurovascular bundle of the same name) branch off laterally and a neurovascular bundle continues anteriorly, also called the incisor, which innervates and irrigates said mandibular teeth. In order to clarify what was previously mentioned and to distinguish both incisive structures, it is intended to add a suffix (maxillary or mandibular) correcting the names of said canals. For the above, a review of the literature available in PubMed and Google Scholar was carried out, with the keywords "INCISIVE CA- NAL" and "INCISIVE CANAL", using the word OR as a boolean operator. The inclusion criteria of the studies were: 1) that they refer to an incisive canal (whether maxillary or mandibular) 2) that they be available to be read in full text and 3) that their language be English or Spanish. Of all the articles analyzed, 52% spoke exclusively about the maxillary incisive canal, 43% only about the mandibular incisive canal, and 5% about both. In conclusion, we can infer that it is of the utmost importance that the nomenclature of these anatomical structures be regularized, because the fact of recognizing it as such allows guaranteeing its study and contribution from the entire scientific community, regardless of origin or language. In addition, the mandibular incisive canal is well documented, therefore, by not being recognized in anatomical terminology, the main mission of the international association of anatomy associations (IFAA) is lost, which is to unify and organize the names of the anatomy. existing anatomical structures.

KEY WORDS: Incisive Canal.

VALENZUELA, M. I.; LAGOS, F. R.; SOTO, N. R The incisive canal: a maxillary or mandibular structure? Narrative Review. Int. J. Morphol., 40(6):1452-1459, 2022.