Evaluation of the mandibular angle on cone beam computed tomography images

The mandible is one of the most important bones used in age and gender determination in forensic medicine and anthropology. In literature, there are many studies examining the relationship between the mandibular angle on the mandible and gender. However, these studies reported different results. The aim of this study was to measure the mandibular angle with cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images and investigate the relation of this angle with age and gender. CBCT images of 235 dentate individuals aged between 7 and 77 were examined. The individuals examined were categorized into four age groups as 7-19 years (group I), 20-39 years (group II), 40-59 years (group III), and 60-77 years (group IV). The mandibular angle was measured bilaterally in all individuals. It was observed that there was a statistical difference between mandibular angle and gender in the groups between the ages of 20-39 and 40-59. There was a weak negative correlation between age and mandibular angle in the 20-39 age group. The results obtained in this study and the comparison of these results with the literature clearly show that it is currently not possible to clearly express the relationship between the mandibular angle and both age and gender. For this reason, we believe that conducting further studies evaluating both the mandibular angle and the relationship between the mandibular angle and other anatomical structures on a larger sample can yield more meaningful results.