Radiographic Study of Mental Foramen in a Selected Indian Population in Kheda District, Gujarat

Information on the knowledge of the mental foramen is important in clinical dentistry. The present study was undertaken to determine the most common position of mental foramen in randomly selected Indian population. Total 204 panoramic radiographs were evaluated, among them 184 were studied in terms of site, gender differences, symmetry of location, shape, distance from midline and continuity of the foramen with the canal and remaining 20 were considered as unidentified type. Total 368 mental foramen were evaluated, among them 242 (65.76%) were symmetrical in distribution and 126 (34.24%) were asymmetrical in distribution. The most common position for mental foramen (n = 242) relative to the teeth in the sample was between first and second premolar (n = 235, 63.86%). Same findings were observed in both sexes (male n = 130, 70.66% and female n = 105, 57.06%). The second most common position was in line with second premolar (n = 97, 26.36%). The most common shape of foramen is round (n = 178, 48.37%) followed by oval shape (n = 131, 35.60%). Most of the foramen were separated from the inferior alveolar canal (n = 197, 53.53%) and average distance from the midline is 28.44 mm in male and 26.89 mm in female.