The Age- and Gender-wise Assessment of the Position and Shape of Mental Foramen in Patients’ Panoramic Radiography

Abstract

Background and Aim: Recognizing the position of the Mental Foramen (MF) is essential in numerous cases, such as anesthesia injection and periapical surgeries in the anterior region of the mandible. Furthermore, the diversity in the location and position of MF can develop problems during surgery in this region. Methods & Materials: The present study examined anatomical landmarks based on panoramic radiographic images obtained in Bandar Abbas City, Iran. In total, 450 panoramic radiographic images of men and women were assessed. All explored images were converted to JPEG format and entered in real size in Auto CAD software (2014). The collected data were analyzed in SPSS by one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Student’s t-test, and Chi-squared test. Ethical Considerations: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.HUMS.REC.1394.189). Results: The obtained data revealed that the mean distance from the MF to the lower edge of the mandible on the right and left was 10.53 mm and 10.51 mm, respectively. The mean distance from the MF to the posterior side of the mandible equaled 49.36 mm on the right and 48.72 mm on the left. Moreover, the mean distance of MF to the midline of the lower jaw on the right and left was calculated as 27.16 and 26.27 mm, respectively. Furthermore, in most cases, the anterior-posterior position of MF was symmetrical concerning anatomical landmarks. The anterior-posterior distance of MF to mandibular midline was significantly different between the explored males and females (P<0.001). There was no significant gender-wise difference in the shape of the MF (P=0.89). Conclusion: The present research results signified that the most frequent anterior-posterior position of the MF is between the apex of the first and second premolars. Furthermore, the most prevalent shape of MF is oval per panoramic images.