Mandibular foramen location

Objective: This study proposed to locate the mandibular foramen position by using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging, based on landmarks used at inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) technique in order to increase the success rate of this procedure. Materials and methods: 58 mandibular foramina of 29 adult patients were evaluated. Linear and angular CBCT measurements were defined for the mandibular foramen based on the IANB technique. The measurements were performed by two radiologists. Data analyses consisted of verifying the normality, obtaining the mean value of all patients and comparing the data obtained between male and female patients. Results: Student’s t and Mann-Whitney’s U tests were used to calculate the mean mandibular foramen position. The three mean position measurements of the mandibular foramen were 13.5 mm above the occlusal plan (15.5 mm for male and 11.7 mm for female patients), 14.6 mm below the mandibular notch (14.9 mm for male and 13.7 mm for female patients) and 14.2 mm from the anterior border of mandibular ramus (14.6 mm for male and 13.8 mm for female patients). The angle formed by the molar lines and contralateral premolar lines was 25.8° and the angle formed by the molar lines and contralateral second premolar/molar lines was 31.5°. Conclusion: CBCT images were a useful method to provide the measurements of the mandibular foramen position based on landmarks used by the IANB technique. We encourage the use of these measurements as reference to increase the clinical success when performing the IANB technique.