School of Dental Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatian Dental Society - Croatian Medical Association
Abstract
This study was conducted to determine the relationship o f the center o f the mental foramen to the inferior (IM - CM) and superior borders (CM - SM) o f the mandible, as reference points on panoramic radiographs in different groups according to sex, age and loss of teeth, to elucidate some o f the factors contributing to alveolar ridge resorption. Measurements o f 564 images (left and right sides) on 282 panoramic radiographs revealed the mental foramen to be nearer to
the lower border o f the mandible (p <0.05). There was no significant
difference for IM - CM distances between the groups with different number o f teeth and o f different age in either men and women (p > 0.05), indicating this part o f the mandible to remain relatively constant in size, despite increasing age, loss of teeth and occurrence
of postmenopausal osteoporosis in women. In women the mandible was found to be significantly smaller for both measured distances (IM - CM, and CM - SM) than in men (p 0,05) i kod muških i kod ženskih ispitanika. Za udaljenost od centra foramena mentale do donjeg ruba mandibula (IM - CM) nije bilo statistički značajne razlike (p > 0,05) između ispitanika različite dobi i različitog gubitka zubi, što ukazuje da se ovaj dio mandibule ne resorbira, bez obzira na dob, gubitak zuba ili nastanak postmenopauzalne osteoporoze u žena. Mandibula je kod žena bitno manja nego kod muškaraca za obje udaljenosti (IM - CM i CM - SM) (p < 0,01), što je i očekivani rezultat, jer žene imaju općenito slabije razvijen skelet.
Za udaljenost od centra foramena mentale do gornjeg ruba
mandibule (CM - SM) postojala je statistički značajna razlika između
ozubljenih i potpuno bezubih ispitanika i kod ženskog i kod muškog spola (p < 0,05), što pokazuje da je potpuni gubitak zuba glavni etiološki faktor prilikom resorpcije alveolarnog nastavka i da je važno sačuvati zube prilikom izrade protetskih nadomjestaka
