Gender and Age Differences in Mandibular Ramus and Body Measurements: A Radiographic Study

Abstract

The dental panoramic radiographs (PR) and lateral cephalographs (LC) of 140 subjects in the age group between 5 and 24 years were examined to evaluate the mandibular morphology in relation to gender and age. The examined films were divided into seven age groups. The bigonial width (BW), mandibular body height (MBH) and length (MBL), mandibular ramus width (MRW), height (MRH) and length (MRL), and gonial angle were recorded, measured and the data analyzed. Level of significance was set at 0.05. In our study the mean value of BW and MRW increased in both gender with increasing age up to age 17 years, then began decreasing. The anterior and posterior MBH and MBL increased with increasing age for both genders with statistically significant differences between the first and second groups (p< 0.05) and the fourth and fifth groups (p< 0.05) for anterior MBH, and between the third and fourth groups (p< 0.05) for posterior MBH and MBL (p< 0.05). MRH and MRL also increased with increasing age with statistically significant differences between the third and fourth (p< 0.05) and the fourth and fifth (p< 0.05) age groups for MRH and the fourth and fifth (p< 0.05) and fifth and sixth (p< 0.05) age groups for MRL. On the other hand, the gonial angle decreased with increasing age but without significant differences. Knowledge of mandibular growth is important factors for diagnosis and treatment planning in orthodontics as well as community medicine for monitoring the growth of children.