Anatomical variations in position of mandibular foramen: An East European morphometric study in dry adult human mandibles for achieving a successful inferior alveolar nerve block

Abstract

In today’s era of modern dentistry, the race towards developing painless and trauma-less procedures remain an important goal of all major companies and dental researchers. One such technique of focus is the Inferior Alveolar Nerve Block (IANB) which remains by far the most common anesthetic technique followed worldwide prior to any submaxillary treatment procedure. Despite of it being so popular, the failure rates remain significantly high with estimates at 15-60% among dental practitioners and dental students alike. Major reasons for failure include inaccurate determination of Mandibular foramen, variations in location of foramen, presence of accessory foramen, etc. to name a few. The present article aims to present the morpho-anatomical variations in the position of Mandibular Foramen in East European population. For this reason, the distance of the foramen was measured from 5 different bony landmarks using digital Vernier caliper on dry human adult mandibles. Analyzing the results, the foramen was found to be positioned at a mean distance of 16.88 ± 2.43 mm on the right side and 17.33 ± 2.24 mm on the left side from the anterior border of the ramus. Similarly, it was found to be 12.31 ± 2.49 mm and 11.75 ± 2.47 mm on right and left sides respectively from posterior border of ramus. It was found to be 17.41 ± 3.22 mm and 18.01 ± 3.44 mm and 19.80 ± 3.86 mm and 20.11 ± 4.08 mm on right and left sides from mandibular notch and angle of mandible respectively.