Abstract

Background: The position of mental foramen is very important because it will be helpful to localize the important neurovascular bundle passing through. It is a landmark to facilitate surgical, local anaesthetic and other invasive procedures for dental surgeons performing peri-apical surgery in the mental region of mandible. Aims & Objective: To study morphometric analysis of mental foramen in dry human mandibles. Materials and Methods: 50 dried adult human mandibles with dentition and intact alveolar margin of unknown sex were used for this study. The morphometric measurements were recorded using Vernier callipers. Results: The most commonly present position of the MF as related to the lower set of teeth was in line with the second premolar, Type 3 - 48 % cases on the right side and type 4 -52% cases on the left side Conclusion: The knowledge of the distances from surgically encountered anatomical landmarks in the present study provide valuable information to dental surgeons that will facilitate effective localization of the neurovascular bundle passing through mental foramen, thus avoiding complications from local anaesthetic, surgical and other invasive procedures. The study is also of forensic significance as the position of mental foramen also helps in xdetermination of sex of an individual.

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