Appearance of Anatomical Structures of Mandible on Panoramic Radiographs (Panorex-X-Ray) in Patients who Referred to Dental School of Shahid Beheshti University

Purpose: Currently panoramic radiography is used for diagnostic dental, and bone lesions, but anatomical structures also can see, for example incisive canal. At present time incisive canal position is investigated in Iranian population. Materials and Methods: Panoramic radiographs were taken by Planmeca machine from 412 patients using standard exposure. The position of patient was in compliance with standard protocol. After that mandibular incisive canal was evaluated, and data were analyzed statistically. Results: Mental foramen, anterior loop of mental nerve & incisive canal could be observed in 84.2, 66 & 51.7% of the cases. Respectively lingual foramen wich was observed in only 6.1% of the radiographs. Gender doesn’t affect on the visibility of these structures. There was a relationship between mandibular foramen and canal with age among those six landmarks. The most percent of visibility of all the landmarks was in young group and adults (third and fourth decade).Conclusion: Mandibular incisive canal was considered in 51.7% of cases, it was obsereved that the result obtained was more than those of other researches.