Mental foramen: a morphological and morphometrical study

Introduction: Studying the position of mental foramen and its morphological variations help to localize the mental nerve and thus prevent complications during surgical procedures. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in 40 dry adult human mandibles in the department of anatomy, Teerthanker Mahaveer Medical College and Research Center. Parameters like incidence, position, direction, shape and diameters of mental foramen were studied. Direction was determined using an office pin and diameters using vernier caliper. Results: Mental foramen was present bilaterally in all the mandibles studied. The most prevalent shape was found to be round on both sides (75% on right and 60% on the left sides). The most common position was between the 2 premolar and 1 molar on the right (P5 65%) and between 1 and 2 premolars on the left side (P3 40%). We found the higher incidence of anteriorly directed mental foramen on both sides (62.5% on right and 57.5% on left). The mean vertical diameters were 2.3±0.64mm on right and 2.29±0.6mm on left sides whereas the mean horizontal diameters were 2.63±0.85mm and 2.61±0.85mm on right and left sides respectively. Conclusion: Our data may provide useful information to the dental surgeons to carry out nerve block and surgical procedures like apical curettage of mandibular premolars and periodontal surgery. We could not observe accessory mental foramen (AMF) in any of the 40 mandibles studied. It might be due to less number of samples.