Computed Tomographic Analysis of Mental Foramen for Age and Sex Determination in Iraqi Population

• Main Authors: Hawraa Noori Atallah, Sarmad A Hameed, Zahraa M Al-Fadhily, Sana Abdulrazzaq Ibrahim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amber Publication 2019-10-01
• Series: Journal of Research in Medical and Dental Science
• Subjects: mental foramen; inferior border of the mandible; forensic dentistry; computed tomography; age and sex
• Online Access: https://www.jrmds.in/articles/computed-tomographic-analysis-of-mental-foramen-for-age-and-sex-determination-in-iraqi-population.pdf

Objectives: A study conducted to investigate the location of the mental foramen using computed tomography to evaluate whether there is a correlation between this radiographic parameter with age and gender of the Al-Najaf population and evaluate it relates to forensic odontology. Materials and methods: 72 computed tomographic images were studied to measure the distance from the lower border of the mental foramen to the lower border of the mandible. The study sample was divided into two groups, group I age (14-35) and group II age (36-60) years (each group consisted of 36 subjects), and also grouped according to sex (each group consisted of 36 subjects). Statistical analysis: Statistical analysis was done by using SPSS (statistical package for social sciences) version 20. In which we use mean and standard deviation as descriptive statistics. For analysis of data, we use independent sample t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient. p-value ≤ 0.05 regarded as significant. Results: There is a significant difference in the location of the mental foramen to the lower border of the mandible which was higher in males than females while there is no significant difference regarding the age of the subject. Conclusion: There could be sexual dimorphism regarding the location of the mental foramen to the lower border of the mandible. This difference does not seem to be found regarding the age of the subject in Al-Najaf population.