Assessment of mental foramen position on Orthopantomograms (OPGs) in Hamdard Dental hospital Karachi, A retrospective study

Abstract

Objective: This study intends to determine the most typical location of the mental foramen and whether the left and right sides differ using panoramic radiography.
Methodology: A retrospective cross-sectional study with Nonprobability convenient sampling was conducted on a digital orthopantomogram (OPG) of the population visiting in OPD of Hamdard University dental hospital Karachi. About 1192 panoramic (OPDG) radiographs between the period of 6 months November 2022 and May 2023 were evaluated with regard to the position of mental foramen in male and female subjects between the age of 15-65 years. The data was entered in SPSS version 16 and analyzed for Frequencies and associations of mental foramen between genders a both sides of mandible.
Results: The mean age of the patient was 34 years with female frequency 57%. The most common location of the fora-men was found to be below the apex of the 2nd premolar (n=636) followed by below the apex of the 1st and 2nd premo-lars (n=286) in relation to both left and right sides. Statistical analysis didn’t show a significant relation with the Gender.
Conclusion: Mental Foramen was most commonly observed below the apex of the second premolar, with higher fre-quencies in females 51%(n=352) compared to males 44%(n=255). Location of Mental Foramen in both genders was found to be at same position and there was no significant association
Key words: Anatomic land mark, Mandible, Mental foramen (MF), Panoramic x-rays (OPG) Orthopantomogram (OPG)