SAFE MARGIN FROM MENTAL FORAMEN FOR SURGICAL PROCEDURES IN INTER-FORAMINAL REGION IN EAST-INDIAN POPULATION: A CBCT ANALYSIS

Abstract

Mental foramen is an important and easily identiable anatomical landmark for any surgical procedure in the inter-foraminal region. If a safe margin from the mental foramen is not maintained, it leads to inadvertent damage to the mental nerve leading to neuro-sensory decit. Aims and objective- The length of anterior loop of mental foramen varies with genders, different races and population. This study aims to assess the length of anterior loop of mental foramen and thus the safe margin from mental foramen in East-Indian population. Material and method- 100 CBCT images (of East-Indian population) were collected from Institutuional archive. It consisted of 200 sites of mental foramen. Length of anterior loop of mental foramen was measured. In the present study, the safe margin from mental foramen was calculated as 2 mm excess of the length of the anterior loop. The mean length of anterior loop of mental foramen was found to be 3.06 ± 1.62 Result- mm and the mean safe margin from mental foramen was 5.06 ± 1.62 mm. No statistically signicant difference was found among the genders, sides and different age groups. We Conclusionrecommend a safe margin of 5mm from mental foramen. Individual pre-operative radiographic evaluation of mental foramen and its loop is of utmost importance