Mental foramen in Thais: an anatomical variation related to gender and side

Abstract

Sixty-nine adult mandibles (45 male, 24 female) of Thai dry skulls were assessed to determine the size, the orientation and the location of the mental foramen (MF) related to gender and side. The results showed that the usual direction of exit of the MF was in a posterosuperior direction. The most common location of the MF was bilaterally symmetrical and located on the same vertical line with the long axis of the lower second premolar. The mean distances from the MF to the symphysis menti (A), to the posterior border of the mandibular ramus (P), to the lower border of the mandible (mb) and to the buccal cusp tip of the second premolar (cm) were 28.83, 68.85, 14.88 and 24.27 mm, respectively. The mean distances from the alveolar bone crest across the MF to the lower border of the mandible (ab) was 29.97 mm. The mean distance from the buccal cusp tip of the second premolar through the long axis of the clinical crown to the lower border of the mandible (cb) was 39.18 mm. No measurements varied according to the sides (P > 0.05). In contrast, gender differences were significant in all measurements with the longer distances in males (P < 0.05). The mean ratios of A/(A + P), mb/ab and cm/cb in all subjects were 0.30, 0.50 and 0.62, respectively. The values of the three ratios were nearly equal in males and females. Our results may assist surgeons to localize important maxillofacial neurovascular bundles passing through the MF in avoiding complication from local anesthetic, surgical and other invasive procedures.

A comparative anthropometric study of the position of the mental foramen in three populations

“…Tebo and Telford 2 stated that the foramen lies approximately one fourth of the distance from the symphysis menti to the posterior border of the mandible, which is smaller than that calculated by both Apinhasmit (0.30) 40 and Wang (0.27). 10 The latter two studies are in virtual agreement with the current study which gave a ratio of 0.26 to 0.28.…”

Association of type 2 diabetes mellitus with the reduction of mandibular residual ridge among edentulous patients using panoramic radiographs

“…MF landmark selected for the present study is commonly used for studies of mandibular bone as it is fairly reproducible [44][45][46]. The location of the MF relative to the inferior and superior borders of normal mandibles, as expressed by the mean ratio of total bone height to height of the foramen above the inferior border, appears to be consisted enough to justify its use as a reference point in clinical studies.…”

A local reference value for the mental foramen in adult Sudanese: A 3D computerized tomography based study

“…Oliveira Junior et al (2009) [6] reported that the shape was found to be oval with Larger diameter in the horizontal direction. Regarding the size of the mental foramen and according to Chung et al(1995) [35] ; horizontal opening of MF was 2.4 mm and Apinhasmit et al [36] reported the average horizontal opening was 2.8mm. Oguz & Bozkir (2002) [37] did measurements in 34 dry mandibles of people from Turkey.…”