Varying shapes of lingula and its prevalence in dry adult human mandible

Abstract

Introduction: Mandibular foramen which transmits inferior alveolar nerve is guarded anteriorly by a bony projection called lingula. Lingula directs oral and maxillofacial surgeons to locate inferior alveolar nerve to provide anaesthetic block during dental procedures. Lack of precise knowledge on varying shapes of lingula in different population might be a cause for surgical failures. This study intended to compare the shape of lingula obtained with the findings of previous authors from different Indian population, to provide a fair idea on ethical and racial disparity of lingula. Materials and Methods: Varying shapes of lingula observed in 50 (100 sides) dry adult human mandibles collected from department of Anatomy, AIMSR, Kollam. Related the findings of lingula with the genders of mandible and correlated the findings with previous studies from different ethnic groups. Results: The most frequent shape of the lingula was triangular (47%), followed by nodular (26%), truncated (18%), assimilated (7%) types and M shaped lingula observed in 0.2% of mandible. Majority of male mandible (56%) showed triangular variety of lingula and almost equal proportion (38%) and (30%) of female mandible showed triangular and nodular variety respectively. Conclusion: Maxillo-facial surgeons blindly palpate lingula to give nerve block during several dental procedures. Lingula forms a bony landmark for mandibular ramus osteotomy. Hence a compiling knowledge on anatomical variants in different population would be of great help to dental surgeons to perform safer surgeries. Keywords: Gender disparity, Inferior alveolar nerve, Lingula, Mandibular ramus osteotomy, Nerve block.